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VILLANI'S CHRONICLE
Being Selections from the First Nine Books of the
Croniche Fiorentine of Giovanni Villani
Translated by Rose E. Selfe
and
Edited by Philip H. Wicksteed M.A.
London
Archibald Constable & Co. Ltd.
1906
SECOND EDITION
Carefully Revised
Ditemi dell' ovil di San Giovanni
Quanto era allora, e chi eran le genti
Tra esso degne di piu alti scanni
[Illustration]
PREFATORY NOTE
The Editor is responsible for the selection of the passages
translated, and for the Introduction. He has also compared the
translation with the original text, has satisfied himself of its
general accuracy, and has made numerous suggestions.
The Translator is responsible for the fidelity of the translation in
detail, and for its general tone and style. She has also drawn up the
Indexes, and seen the work through the press.
For the selection of marginal references to the works of Dante the
Editor and Translator are jointly responsible.
Both Translator and Editor desire to express their obligations to Mr.
A.J. Butler, who has given them his ungrudging assistance in every
difficulty, and whose learning and judgment have been invaluable.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PAGE
INTRODUCTION xxv
BOOK I.
_This book is called the New Chronicle, in which many
past things are treated of, and especially the root and origins
of the city of Florence; then all the changes through which
it has passed and shall pass in the course of time: begun to
be compiled in the year of the Incarnation of Jesus Christ,
1300. Here begins the preface and the First Book._
Sec. 1. 1
Sec. 2.--_How through the confusion of the Tower of Babel
the world began to be inhabited_ 2
Sec. 5.--_Of the third part of the world called Europe, and
its boundaries_ 4
Sec. 7.--_How King Atlas first built the city of Fiesole_ 4
Sec. 8.--_How Atlas had three sons, Italus and Dardanus
and Sicanus_ 6
Sec. 9.--_How Italus and Dardanus came to agree which
should succeed to the city of Fiesole and the kingdom
of Italy_ 7
Sec. 10.--_How Dardanus came to Phrygia and built the city
of Dardania, which was afterwards the great Troy_ 8
Sec. 11.--_How Dardanus had a son which was named
Tritamus, which was the father of Trojus, after
whose name the city of Troy was so called_ 8
Sec. 17.--_How Antenor and the young Priam, having departed
from Troy, built the city of Venice, and that
of Padua_ 9
Sec. 21.--_How Aeneas departed from Troy and came to
Carthage in Africa_ 10
Sec. 22.--_How Aeneas came into Italy_ 13
Sec. 23.--_How the King Latinus ruled over Italy, and how
Aeneas had his daughter to wife, and all his kingdom_ 14
Sec. 29.--_How Rome was ruled for a long time by the
government of the consuls and senators, until Julius
Caesar became Emperor_ 16
Sec. 30.--_How a conspiracy was formed in Rome by Catiline
and his followers_ 18
Sec. 31.--_How Catiline caused the city of Fiesole to rebel
against the city of Rome_ 19
Sec. 32.--_How Catiline and his followers were discomfited
by the Romans in the plain of Piceno_ 20
Sec. 33.--_How Metellus with his troops made war upon the
Fiesolans_ 22
Sec. 34.--_How Metellus and Fiorinus discomfited the Fiesolans_ 22
Sec. 35.--_How the Romans besieged Fiesole the first time,
and how Fiorinus was slain_ 23
Sec. 36.--_How, because of the death of Fiorinus, the Romans
returned to the siege of Fiesole_ 24
Sec. 37.--_How the city of Fiesole surrendered itself to the
Romans, and was destroyed and laid waste_ 26
Sec. 38.--_How the city of Florence was first built_ 27
Sec. 39.--_How Caesar departed from Florence, and went to
Rome, and was made consul to go against the
French_ 30
Sec. 40.--_Of the ensign of the Romans and of the Emperors,
and how from them it came to the city of Florence
and other cities_ 31
Sec. 42.--_How the Temple of Mars, which is now called
the Duomo of S. Giovanni, was built in Florence_ 32
Sec. 50.--_Of the city of Luni_ 34
Sec. 57.--_The story returns to the doings of the city of
Florence, and how S. Miniato there suffered martyrdom
under Decius, the Emperor_ 35
Sec. 59.--_Of Constantine the Emperor, and his descendants,
and the changes which came thereof in Italy_ 38
Sec. 60.--_How the Christian faith first came to Florence_ 39
BOOK II.
Sec. 1.--_Here begins the Second Book: how the city of
Florence was destroyed by Totila, the scourge of
God, king of the Goths and Vandals_ 43
Sec. 2.--_How Totila caused the city of Fiesole to be rebuilt_ 47
Sec. 4.--_How the Goths remained lords of Italy after the
death of Totila_ 47
Sec. 10.--_How Charles Martel came from France to Italy
at the summons of the Church against the Lombards;
and of the origin of the city of Siena_ 48
Sec. 12.--_How Telofre [Astolf], king of the Lombards,
persecuted Holy Church, and how King Pepin, at
the summons of Pope Stephen, came from France
and defeated him, and took him prisoner_ 49
Sec. 13.--_How Desiderius, son of Telofre, began war again
with Holy Church, for the which thing Charles the
Great passed into Italy, and defeated him, and took
away and destroyed the lordship of the Lombards_ 51
Sec. 15.--_How Charles the Great, king of France, was
made Emperor of Rome_ 54
Sec. 21.--_How the city of Florence lay waste and in ruins
for 350 years_ 56
BOOK III.
_Goes back somewhat to tell how the city of Florence was
rebuilt by the power of Charles the Great and the Romans._
Sec. 1. 59
Sec. 2.--_Of the form and size in which the city of Florence
was rebuilt_ 62
Sec. 3.--_How Charles the Great came to Florence, and
granted privileges to the city, and caused Santo
Apostolo to be built_ 65
BOOK IV.
Sec. 2.--_Of the Emperor Otho III., and the Marquis
Hugh, which built the Badia at Florence_ 69
Sec. 4.--_Of the progeny of the Kings of France, which descended
from Hugh Capet_ 71
Sec. 6.--_How in the time of the said Henry, the Florentines
took the city of Fiesole, and destroyed it_ 71
Sec. 7.--_How that many Fiesolans came to dwell in
Florence, and made one people with the Florentines_ 74
Sec. 8.--_How the city of Florence increased its circuit, first
by moats and palisades, and then by walls_ 75
Sec. 9.--_How Conrad I. was made Emperor_ 78
Sec. 10.--_Of the nobles which were in the city of Florence
in the time of the said Emperor Conrad, and first of
those about the Duomo_ 79
Sec. 11.--_Concerning the houses of the nobles in the quarter
of Porta San Piero_ 80
Sec. 12.--_Of them of the quarter of Porta San Brancazio_ 81
Sec. 13.--_Concerning them of the great quarter of Porta
Santa Maria and of San Piero Scheraggio_ 81
Sec. 18.--_Narration of many things that were in those times_ 83
Sec. 19.--_Of Robert Guiscard and his descendants, which
were kings of Sicily and of Apulia_ 84
Sec. 20.--_Concerning the successors of Robert Guiscard,
which were kings of Sicily and of Apulia_ 89
Sec. 21.--_Of the Countess Matilda_ 92
Sec. 29.--_How the Florentines defeated the Vicar of the
Emperor Henry IV._ 95
Sec. 30.--_How the city of Florence took fire twice, whence a
great part of the city was burnt_ 95
Sec. 31.--_How the Pisans took Majorca, and the Florentines
protected the city of Pisa_ 96
Sec. 32.--_How the Florentines took and destroyed the fortress
of Fiesole_ 98
Sec. 36.--_How the Florentines destroyed the fortress of
Montebuono_ 98
BOOK V.
_Here begins the Fifth Book: How Frederick I. of Staufen of
Suabia was Emperor of Rome, and of his descendants, and
concerning the doings of Florence, which were in their times,
and of all Italy._
Sec. 1. 101
Sec. 2.--_How Pope Alexander returned from France to
Venice, and the Emperor returned to obedience_ 105
Sec. 3.--_How the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa was reconciled
with the Church, and went over seas, and
there died_ 106
Sec. 8.--_Of the great fires which were in the city of
Florence_ 108
Sec. 9.--_How civil war began in Florence between the
Uberti and the government of the Consuls_ 109
Sec. 12.--_How the Emperor Frederick I. took their territory
from the city of Florence, and many other
cities of Tuscany_ 110
Sec. 13.--_How the Florentines took the cross, and went
over seas to conquer Damietta, and therefore recovered
their territory_ 111
Sec. 16.--_How Henry of Suabia was made Emperor by
the Church, and how Constance, queen of Sicily,
was given him to wife_ 112
Sec. 24.--_How the Order of the Minor Friars began_ 114
Sec. 25.--_How the Order of the Preaching Friars began_ 114
Sec. 26.--_How the Florentines destroyed the castle of
Frondigliano_ 115
Sec. 30.--_How the Florentines destroyed the strongholds
of Simifonti and of Combiata_ 116
Sec. 31.--_Destruction of Montelupo, and how the Florentines
gained Montemurlo_ 116
Sec. 32.--_How the Florentines elected their first Podesta_ 117
Sec. 36.--_How during Otho's lifetime Frederick II. of
Suabia was elected Emperor by the desire of the
Church at Rome_ 118
Sec. 37.--_Concerning the death of the old Count Guido,
and of his progeny_ 119
Sec. 38.--_How the parties of the Guelfs and Ghibellines
arose in Florence_ 121
Sec. 39.--_Of the families and the nobles which became
Guelfs and Ghibellines in Florence_ 123
Sec. 41.--_How the Florentines caused the dwellers in the
country around to swear fealty to the city, and how
the new Carraia Bridge was begun_ 125
BOOK VI.
_How Frederick II. was consecrated and made Emperor, and
the great things which came to pass._
Sec. 1. 127
Sec. 5.--_How the Florentines led an army against Pistoia,
and laid waste the country round about_ 129
Sec. 14.--_How the Emperor Frederick came to enmity
with the Church_ 130
Sec. 22.--_How the Emperor laid hold of King Henry, his
son_ 133
Sec. 23.--_How the war began between Pope Innocent IV.
and the Emperor Frederick_ 134
Sec. 24.--_Of the sentence which Pope Innocent pronounced
at the council of Lyons-on-Rhine, upon the Emperor
Frederick_ 135
Sec. 25.--_How the Pope and the Church caused a new
Emperor to be elected in place of Frederick, the
deposed Emperor_ 138
Sec. 26.--_We will tell an incident in the affairs of Florence_ 140
Sec. 33.--_How the Guelf party was first driven from
Florence by the Ghibellines and the forces of the
Emperor Frederick_ 140
Sec. 34.--_How the host of the Emperor Frederick was defeated
by the Parmesans, and by the Pope's legate_ 146
Sec. 35.--_How the Guelf refugees from Florence were
taken in the fortress of Capraia_ 147
Sec. 39.--_How the Primo Popolo was formed in Florence
to be a defence against the violence and attacks of
the Ghibellines_ 149
Sec. 41.--_How the Emperor Frederick died at Firenzuola
in Apulia_ 151
Sec. 42.--_How the Popolo of Florence peaceably restored
the Guelfs to Florence_ 152
Sec. 43.--_How at the time of the said Popolo the Florentines
discomfited the men of Pistoia, and afterwards
banished certain families of the Ghibellines from
Florence_ 153
Sec. 44.--_How King Conrad, son of Frederick the Emperor,
came from Germany into Apulia, and had
the lordship over the realm of Sicily, and how he
died_ 154
Sec. 45.--_How Manfred, natural son of Frederick, took
the lordship of the kingdom of Sicily and of
Apulia, and caused himself to be crowned_ 156
Sec. 46.--_Of the war between Pope Alexander and King
Manfred_ 158
Sec. 50.--_How the bridge Santa Trinita was built_ 160
Sec. 53.--_How the golden florins were first made in Florence_ 161
Sec. 55.--_How the Florentines marched against Siena, and
the Sienese came to terms with them, and there was
peace between them_ 162
Sec. 65.--_How the Popolo of Florence drave out the Ghibellines
for the first time from Florence, and the
reason why_ 164
Sec. 69.--_Incidents of the doings that were in Florence at
the time of the Popolo_ 166
Sec. 72.--_How the great tyrant, Ezzelino da Romano, was
defeated by the Cremonese and died in prison_ 167
Sec. 73.--_How both the king of Castille and Richard, earl
of Cornwall, were elected king of the Romans_ 169
Sec. 74.--_How the Ghibelline refugees from Florence sent
into Apulia to King Manfred for succour_ 169
Sec. 75.--_How the commonwealth and people of Florence
led a great host up to the gates of Siena with the
carroccio_ 170
Sec. 76.--_How King Manfred sent Count Giordano with
800 Germans to succour the Sienese and the Ghibelline
refugees from Florence_ 173
Sec. 77.--_How the Ghibelline refugees from Florence prepared
to deceive the commonwealth and people of
Florence, and cause them to be betrayed_ 174
Sec. 78.--_How the Florentines raised an army to fortify
Montalcino, and were discomfited by Count Giordano
and by the Sienese at Montaperti_ 177
Sec. 79.--_How the Guelfs of Florence, after the said
discomfiture, departed from Florence and went to Lucca_ 181
Sec. 80.--_How the news of the defeat of the Florentines
came to the court of the Pope, and the prophecy
which was made thereupon by Cardinal Bianco_ 183
Sec. 81.--_How the Ghibellines of Tuscany purposed to destroy
the city of Florence, and how M. Farinata
degli Uberti defended it_ 184
Sec. 83.--_How the Guelf refugees from Florence sent their
ambassadors into Germany to stir up Conradino
against Manfred_ 187
Sec. 86.--_How the Guelf refugees from Florence, and the
other exiles of Tuscany, drave out the Ghibellines
from Modena and afterwards from Reggio_ 188
Sec. 87.--_How Manfred persecuted Pope Urban and the
Church with his Saracens of Nocera, and how a
crusade was proclaimed against them_ 190
Sec. 88.--_How the Church of Rome elected Charles of
France to be king of Sicily and of Apulia_ 192
Sec. 89.--_How Charles, count of Anjou and of Provence,
accepted the election offered him by the Church of
Rome to Sicily and Apulia_ 193
Sec. 90.--_Incident relating to the good Count Raymond of
Provence_ 195
BOOK VII.
_Here begins the Seventh Book, which treats of the coming of
King Charles, and of many changes and events which followed
thereupon._
Sec. 1. 199
Sec. 2.--_How the Guelf refugees from Florence took the
arms of Pope Clement, and how they joined the
French army of Count Charles_ 201
Sec. 3.--_How Count Charles departed from France, and
passed by sea from Provence to Rome_ 202
Sec. 4.--_How Count Guy of Montfort, with the horse of
Count Charles, passed through Lombardy_ 204
Sec. 5.--_How King Charles was crowned in Rome king of
Sicily, and how he straightway departed with his
host to go against King Manfred_ 205
Sec. 6.--_How, after King Charles had taken the pass of
Cepperano, he stormed the city of San Germano_ 207
Sec. 7.--_How King Manfred went to Benivento, and how
he arrayed his troops to fight against King Charles_ 209
Sec. 8.--_How King Charles arrayed his troops to fight
against King Manfred_ 211
Sec. 9.--_Concerning the battle between King Charles and
King Manfred, and how King Manfred was discomfited
and slain_ 213
Sec. 13.--_How the Thirty-six were established in Florence,
and how the Guilds of Arts were formed and
standards given thereto_ 217
Sec. 14.--_How the second Popolo rose in Florence, for the
which cause Count Guido Novello, with the Ghibelline
leaders, left Florence_ 220
Sec. 15.--_How the Popolo restored the Guelfs to Florence,
and how they afterwards drave out the Ghibellines_ 223
Sec. 16.--_How, after the Ghibellines had been driven from
Florence, the ordinances and councils of the city
were reorganized_ 225
Sec. 17.--_How the Guelfs of Florence instituted the Ordinances
of the Party_ 226
Sec. 23.--_How the young Conradino, son of King Conrad,
came from Germany into Italy against King
Charles_ 228
Sec. 24.--_How the marshal of King Charles was defeated
at Ponte a Valle by Conradino's army_ 231
Sec. 25.--_How Conradino entered into Rome, and afterwards
with his host passed into the kingdom of
Apulia_ 232
Sec. 26.--_How the host of Conradino and that of King
Charles met in battle at Tagliacozzo_ 233
Sec. 27.--_How Conradino and his people were defeated by
King Charles_ 235
Sec. 29.--_--How Conradino and certain of his barons were
taken by King Charles, and how he caused their
heads to be cut off_ 240
Sec. 31.--_How the Florentines defeated the Sienese at the
foot of Colle di Valdelsa_ 242
Sec. 34.--_How there was a great flood of waters which
carried away the Santa Trinita Bridge and the
Carraia Bridge_ 245
Sec. 37.--_How King Louis of France made an expedition
to Tunis, wherein he died_ 246
Sec. 38.--_How King Charles concluded a treaty with the
king of Tunis, and how the host departed_ 249
Sec. 39.--_How Gregory X. was made Pope at Viterbo, and
how Henry, son of the king of England, there died_ 251
Sec. 42.--_How Pope Gregory came with his court to Florence,
and caused peace to be made between the Guelfs
and Ghibellines_ 255
Sec. 50.--_Of the death of Pope Gregory, and of three other
Popes after him_ 258
Sec. 54.--_How Nicholas III., of the Orsini, was made
Pope, and concerning that which he did in his time_ 261
Sec. 56.--_How the Cardinal Latino, by the Pope's command,
made peace between the Guelfs and Ghibellines
of Florence, and composed all the other feuds
in the city_ 263
Sec. 61.--_How and after what manner the island of Sicily
rebelled against King Charles_ 267
Sec. 79.--_How the Office of Priors was first created in
Florence_ 269
Sec. 81.--_How M. Jean d'Appia, count of Romagna, was
defeated at Forli by the count of Montefeltro_ 272
Sec. 95.--_How the good King Charles passed from this life
at the city of Foggia in Apulia_ 274
Sec. 105.--_How the king of France departed from Aragon,
and died at Perpignan_ 277
Sec. 114.--_Of a notable thing which came to pass in Florence
at this time_ 279
Sec. 121.--_How the judge of Gallura and the Guelf party
were driven from Pisa, and the Count Ugolino
taken prisoner_ 280
Sec. 128.--_How the Pisans chose for captain the count of
Montefeltro, and how they starved to death Count
Ugolino and his sons and grandsons_ 283
Sec. 130.--_Of the coronation of King Charles II., and how
he passed through Florence, and left Messer Amerigo
di Nerbona as captain of war for the Florentines_ 284
Sec. 131.--_How the Florentines defeated the Aretines at
Certomondo in Casentino_ 286
Sec. 132.--_How the Florentines besieged the city of Arezzo,
and laid waste the region round about_ 291
Sec. 145.--_How the soldan of Babylon conquered by force
the city of Acre, to the great hurt of the Christians_ 294
Sec. 146.--_Of the death of King Rudolf of Germany_ 298
Sec. 149.--_How the city of Forli in Romagna was taken
by Maghinardo da Susinana_ 298
BOOK VIII.
_Here begins the Eighth Book. It tells how the second Popolo
arose in the city of Florence, and of many great changes
which by reason thereof came afterwards to pass in Florence,
following on with the other events of those times._
Sec. 1. 301
Sec. 5.--_How Celestine V. was elected and made Pope, and
how he renounced the papacy_ 304
Sec. 6.--_How Boniface VIII. was elected and made Pope_ 306
Sec. 8.--_How the great man of the people, Giano della
Bella, was driven out of Florence_ 309
Sec. 10.--_How M. Gianni di Celona came into Tuscany
as Imperial Vicar_ 312
Sec. 12.--_How the magnates of Florence raised a tumult
in the city to break up the Popolo_ 313
Sec. 13.--_How King Charles made peace with King
James of Aragon_ 315
Sec. 23.--_How the Colonnesi came to ask pardon of the
Pope, and afterwards rebelled a second time_ 317
Sec. 26.--_When the palace of the people of Florence was
begun, where dwell the Priors_ 318
Sec. 36.--_How Pope Boniface VIII. gave pardon to all
Christians which should go to Rome, in the year of
the jubilee_, 1300 320
Sec. 38.--_How the parties of the Blacks and Whites first
began in the city of Pistoia_ 321
Sec. 39.--_How the city of Florence was divided and
brought to shame by the said White and Black
parties_ 323
Sec. 40.--_How the Cardinal Acquasparta came as legate
from the Pope to make peace in Florence, and could
not do it_ 327
Sec. 41.--_Concerning the evils and dangers which followed
afterwards to our city_ 329
Sec. 42.--_Of the same_ 330
Sec. 43.--_How Pope Boniface sent into France for M.
Charles of Valois_ 331
Sec. 45.--_How the Black party were driven out of Pistoia_ 332
Sec. 49.--_How M. Charles of Valois of France came to
Pope Boniface, and afterwards came to Florence
and drove out the White party_ 333
Sec. 59.--_How Folcieri da Calvoli, Podesta of Florence,
caused certain citizens of the White party to be
beheaded_ 339
Sec. 60.--_How the White party and the Ghibelline refugees
from Florence came to Puliciano and
departed thence in discomfiture_ 340
Sec. 61.--_Incident, relating how M. Maffeo Visconti was
driven from Milan_ 342
Sec. 62.--_How there arose strife and enmity between Pope
Boniface and King Philip of France_ 344
Sec. 63.--_How the king of France caused Pope Boniface
to be seized in Anagna by Sciarra della Colonna,
whence the said Pope died a few days afterwards_ 346
Sec. 64.--_We will further tell of the ways of Pope Boniface_ 350
Sec. 67.--_How King Edward of England recovered Gascony
and defeated the Scots_ 352
Sec. 68.--_How there were in Florence great changes and
civic battles through desire that the accounts of the
commonwealth should be examined_ 353
Sec. 69.--_How the Pope sent into Florence as legate the
Cardinal da Prato to make peace, and how he departed
thence in shame and confusion_ 356
Sec. 70.--_How the bridge of Carraia fell, and how many
people died there_ 360
Sec. 71.--_How Florence was set on fire, and a great part
of the city burnt_ 361
Sec. 72.--_How the Whites and Ghibellines came to the
gates of Florence, and departed thence in discomfiture_ 364
Sec. 80.--_How Pope Benedict died, and of the new election
of Pope Clement V._ 369
Sec. 84.--_How there arose in Lombardy one Fra Dolcino
with a great company of heretics, and how they
were burnt_ 375
Sec. 88.--_Of the great war which was begun against the
marquis of Ferrara, and how he died_ 376
Sec. 92.--_How and after what fashion was destroyed the
Order and mansion of the Temple of Jerusalem by
the machinations of the king of France_ 377
Sec. 96.--_How Corso Donati, the great and noble citizen
of Florence, died_ 382
Sec. 101.--_After what manner Henry, count of Luxemburg,
was elected Emperor of Rome_ 386
Sec. 102.--_How Henry the Emperor was confirmed by
the Pope_ 389
Sec. 112.--_How Robert was crowned king over the kingdom
of Sicily and Apulia_ 390
Sec. 120.--_How the ambassadors of Henry, king of the
Romans, came to Florence_ 391
BOOK IX.
_Here begins the Ninth Book. How Henry, count of Luxemburg,
was made Emperor._
Sec. 1. 393
Sec. 7.--_How the Emperor Henry departed from Germany
to go into Italy_ 394
Sec. 8.--_How King Robert came to Florence as he returned
from his coronation_ 395
Sec. 9.--_How the Emperor Henry passed into Italy, and
gained the city of Milan_ 396
Sec. 10.--_How the Florentines enclosed the new circle of
the city with moats_ 397
Sec. 11.--_How the della Torre were driven out of Milan_ 398
Sec. 12.--_How there was great scarcity in Florence, and
concerning other events_ 400
Sec. 14.--_How the Emperor besieged Cremona, and his
people took Vicenza_ 400
Sec. 15.--_How the Emperor took the city of Cremona_ 401
Sec. 16.--_How the Florentines, by reason of the Emperor's
coming, recalled from banishment all the Guelfs_ 402
Sec. 17.--_How the Florentines, with all the Guelf cities of
Tuscany, made a league together against the Emperor_ 402
Sec. 20.--_How the Emperor Henry took the city of Brescia
by siege_ 403
Sec. 22.--_How Pope Clement sent legates to crown the
Emperor Henry_ 405
Sec. 26.--_How the ambassadors from the Emperor came to
Florence, and were driven thence_ 406
Sec. 28.--_How the Empress died in Genoa_ 407
Sec. 29.--_How the Emperor put the Florentines under the
ban of the Empire_ 407
Sec. 32.--_How the city of Brescia rebelled against the
Emperor_ 407
Sec. 34.--_How the city of Cremona rebelled against the
Emperor_ 408
Sec. 35.--_How the marshal of the Emperor came to Pisa,
and began war with the Florentines_ 408
Sec. 36.--_How the Paduans rebelled against the lordship
of the Emperor_ 409
Sec. 39.--_Of the gathering together made by King Robert
and the league of Tuscany at Rome to oppose the
coronation of the Emperor Henry_ 409
Sec. 40.--_How the Emperor Henry departed from Pisa
and came to Rome_ 410
Sec. 43.--_How Henry of Luxemburg was crowned Emperor
at Rome_ 411
Sec. 44.--_How the Emperor departed from Rome to go into
Tuscany_ 413
Sec. 45.--_How the Emperor came to the city of Arezzo,
and afterwards how he came towards the city of
Florence_ 414
Sec. 46.--_How the Florentines were well-nigh discomfited
at the fortress of Ancisa by the army of the Emperor_ 415
Sec. 47.--_How the Emperor Henry encamped with his
host before the city of Florence_ 416
Sec. 48.--_How the Emperor abandoned the siege, and departed
from San Salvi, and came to San Casciano,
and then to Poggibonizzi_ 419
Sec. 49.--_How the Emperor departed from Poggibonizzi,
and returned to Pisa, and issued many bans against
the Florentines_ 421
Sec. 50.--_How the Emperor condemned King Robert_ 422
Sec. 51.--_How the Emperor made ready to enter into the
Kingdom against King Robert, and departed from Pisa_ 423
Sec. 52.--_How the Emperor Henry died at Bonconvento,
in the country of Siena_ 424
Sec. 53.--_Relates how, when the Emperor was dead, his
host was divided, and the barons carried his body
to the city of Pisa_ 425
Sec. 56.--_How the Florentines gave the lordship of Florence
to King Robert for five years_ 426
Sec. 59.--_Of the death of Pope Clement_ 427
Sec. 63.--_How the Paduans were discomfited at Vicenza by
M. Cane della Scala_ 428
Sec. 66.--_Of the death of Philip, king of France, and of
his sons_ 428
Sec. 70.--_How Uguccione, lord of Lucca and of Pisa, laid
siege to the castle of Montecatini_ 430
Sec. 71.--_How, when the prince of Taranto was come to
Florence, the Florentines sallied forth with their
army to succour Montecatini, and were defeated by
Uguccione della Faggiuola_ 431
Sec. 72.--_More about the said battle and defeat of the
Florentines and of the prince_ 432
Sec. 81.--_Of the election of Pope John XXII._ 434
Sec. 86.--_How Uguccione da Faggiuola sought to re-enter
Pisa, and what came of it in Pisa, and of the
Marquis Spinetta_ 436
Sec. 87.--_How the Ghibelline party left Genoa_ 437
Sec. 89.--_How M. Cane della Scala led an army against
the Paduans, and took many castles from them_ 438
Sec. 90.--_How the exiles from Genoa with the force of the
Ghibellines of Lombardy besieged Genoa_ 438
Sec. 92.--_How the exiles from Genoa took the suburbs of Prea_ 439
Sec. 93.--_How King Robert came by sea to succour Genoa_ 440
Sec. 94.--_How the Genoese gave the lordship of Genoa to
King Robert_ 441
Sec. 95.--_Of the active war which the exiles of Genoa with
the Lombards made against King Robert_ 442
Sec. 97.--_How King Robert's followers discomfited the
exiles from Genoa at the village of Sesto, and how
they departed from the siege of the city_ 443
Sec. 99.--_How the exiles from Genoa with the Lombards
returned to the siege of Genoa_ 444
Sec. 100.--_How M. Cane della Scala took the suburbs of Padua_ 445
Sec. 121.--_How M. Cane della Scala, being at the siege of
Padua, was defeated by the Paduans and by the
count of Goertz_ 446
Sec. 136.--_Concerning the poet Dante Alighieri of Florence_ 448
INTRODUCTION
Sec. 1. _The Text._
This book of selections is not intended as a contribution to the study
of Villani, but as an aid to the study of Dante. The text of Villani
is well known to be in a very unsatisfactory condition, and no attempt
at a critical treatment of it has been made. The Florence edition of
1823, in eight volumes, has been almost invariably followed. Here and
there the Editor has silently adopted an emendation that obviously
gives the sense intended, and on p. 277 has inserted in brackets an
acute suggestion made by Mr. A.J. Butler. In a few cases, by far the
most important of which occurs on p. 450, passages which appear in
some but not in all of the MSS. and editions of Villani are inserted
in square brackets.
Sec. 2. _The References._
It is probable that many more references to Dante's works might
advantageously have been inserted in the margin had they occurred to
our minds; and we shall be glad to have our attention called to any
important omissions.
As a rule we have aimed at giving a reference to any passage in
Dante's works on which the text has a direct bearing, or towards the
discussion of which it furnishes materials, without intending thereby
necessarily to commit ourselves to any special interpretation of the
passage in Dante referred to.
But in some instances such a reference would, in our opinion,
distinctly tend to the perpetuation of error. In such cases we have
purposely abstained from appearing to bring a passage of Villani into
relation with a passage of Dante with which we believe it to have no
connection. For instance, to have given a reference to the _Vita
Nuova_ Sec. 41, 1-11, on p. 320 would have appeared to us so distinct and
dangerous a _suggestio falsi_ that we have felt compelled to abstain
from it even at the risk of being charged with a _suppressio veri_ by
those who do not agree with us.
Sec. 3. _The Principle of Selection._
Our aim has been to translate all the passages from the first nine
books of Villani's Chronicles which are likely to be of direct
interest and value to the student of Dante.[1] A few chapters have
been inserted not for their own sakes but because they are necessary
for the understanding of other chapters that bear directly on Dante.
When a chapter contains anything to our purpose, we have usually
translated the whole of it. Where this is not the case the omissions
are invariably indicated by stars * * * * * *. We have given the
headings of all the chapters we have not translated, so that the
reader may have in his hand the continuous thread of Villani's
narrative, and may have some idea of the character of the omitted
portions. By these means we hope we have minimised, though we do not
flatter ourselves that we have removed, the objections which are
legitimately urged against volumes of selections.
[Footnote 1: The complex and miserable history of Ugolino and Nino we
have given only in its most essential portions. Even its connection
with one of the most terrible and widely known passages in the
_Inferno_ cannot make it other than dreary, sordid, and
unilluminating.]
* * * * *
The nature of the interest which the Dante student will find in these
selections will vary as he goes through the volume.
The early portions, up to the end of Book III., are interesting not so
much for the direct elucidation of special passages in Dante as for
the assistance they give us in realizing the atmosphere through which
he and his contemporaries regarded their own past; and their habitual
confusion of legend and history.
From Book IV. on into Book VIII. our interest centres more and more on
the specific contents of Villani's Chronicle. Here he becomes the best
of all commentators upon one phase of Dante's many-sided genius; for
he gives us the material upon which Dante's judgments are passed, and
enables us to know the men and see the events he judges as he himself
knew and saw them. Chapter after chapter reads like a continuous
commentary on _Purg._ vi. 127-151; and there is hardly a sentence that
does not lighten and is not lightened by some passage in the _Comedy_.
Readers who have been accustomed to weary themselves in attempts to
digest and remember historical notes (into which extracts from
Villani, torn from their native haunts, have been driven up for
instant slaughter, as in battue shooting) will find it a relief to
have the story of the battles and revolutions of Florence, as Dante
saw and felt it, continuously set before them--even though it be, for
the present, in the partial and therefore mutilated form of
"selections."
When we come to the later portions of Book VIII. and the first part
of Book IX. the interest again changes. To the events after 1300
Dante's chief work contains comparatively few and scattered allusions;
but as the direct connection with his writings becomes less marked the
connection with his biography becomes more intimate. As we study the
tangled period of Florentine politics that coincides with Dante's
active political life (about 1300 A.D.), the ill-concerted and feeble
attempts of the exiles to regain a footing in their city, and later on
the splendid but futile enterprise of Henry, we seem to find the very
fibres of Dante's life woven into the texture of the history. The
dream of the _De Monarchia_ was dreamed by Henry as well as by Dante;
but as we read the detail of his failure it is borne in upon us that
he not only did fail but must fail, for his ideal was incapable of
realization. Italy was not ready for him, and had she been ready she
would not have needed him.
Finally, the last pages of our volume, which cover selections from the
portion of Book IX., extending from the death of Henry to the death of
Dante himself, are for the most part inserted for a very special
reason, as to which some little detail is necessary. Strangely enough
they derive their importance not from any interest Dante may have
taken in the events they record, but from the fact that he did not
take enough interest in them to satisfy one of his most ardent
admirers. The editions of Dante's collected works include a
correspondence in Latin hexameters between Johannes de Virgilio and
Dante. Now in the poem that opens this correspondence Johannes refers
to Statius and to Lethe in a manner that proves beyond all doubt that
the whole of the _Purgatorio_ as well as the _Inferno_ was in his
hands. But he alludes to the _Paradiso_--the poem of the
"super-solar" realms which is to complete the record of the "lower"
ones--as not yet having appeared. It therefore becomes a matter of
extreme interest to the Dante student to learn the date of this poem.
Now one of the considerations that led Johannes to address Dante was
the hope of inducing him to choose a contemporary subject for a Latin
poem and so write something worthy of himself and of studious readers!
With this object he suggests a number of subjects:--
"Dic age quo petiit Jovis armiger astra volatu:
Dic age quos flores, quae lilia fregit arator:
Dic Phrygias damas laceratos dente molosso:
Dic Ligurum montes, et classes Parthenopaeas."
"Come! tell thou of the flight by which Jove's armour-bearer
(the Imperial Eagle = Henry VII.) sought the stars. Come!
tell thou of the flowers and lilies (of Florence) crushed by
the ploughman (Uguccione da Faggiuola). Tell of the Phrygian
does (the Paduans) torn by the mastiff's (Can Grande's)
tooth. Tell of the Ligurian mountains (the Genoese) and the
Parthenopaean fleets (of Robert of Naples)."
The correctness and security of the interpretation of this passage
will not be doubted by any one accustomed to the pedantic allusiveness
of the age; and it is moreover guaranteed by the annotator of the
Laurentian MS., thought by many to be Boccaccio himself. It will be
seen, therefore, from the study of the concluding pages of this
volume, that when Johannes addressed Dante (after the appearance of
the _Inferno_ and the _Purgatorio_, but before that of the _Paradiso_)
Henry VII. had died (A.D. 1313), Can Grande had defeated the Paduans
(A.D. 1314 and 1317), Uguccione had defeated the Florentines (A.D.
1315), and Robert had collected his fleet to relieve Genoa (February,
1319). It also seems highly probable that Can Grande had not yet
suffered his reverses at the siege of Padua (August, 1320). This is
perhaps the one unassailable datum for the chronology of Dante's
works, and we have therefore included in our selections so much as was
needed to establish it. Our readers will perhaps forgive us for having
then left the fate of Genoa hanging in the balance, for as Villani
says: "Who could write the unbroken history of the dire siege of
Genoa, and the marvellous exploits achieved by the exiles and their
allies? Verily, it is the opinion of the wise that the siege of Troy
itself, in comparison therewith, shewed no greater and more continuous
battling, both by sea and land."
Sec. 4. _The Historical Value of Villani's Chronicle._
An adequate edition of Villani would have to examine his statements in
detail, and, where necessary, to correct them. Such a task, however,
would be alike beyond our powers, and foreign to our immediate
purpose. These selections are intended to illustrate the text of
Dante; and for that purpose it is of more consequence to know what
were the "horrible crimes" of which Dante supposed Manfred to be
guilty, than to enquire whether or no he was really guilty of them. To
know whether Constance was fifty-two, or only thirty, when she married
Henry VI., and whether he took her from a convent or a palace is of
less immediate consequence to the student of Dante than to be
acquainted with the Guelf tradition as to these circumstances.
At the same time, the reader may reasonably ask for some guidance as
to the point at which the authentic history of Florence disengages
itself from the legend, and, further, as to the general degree of
reliance he is justified in placing on the details supplied by
Villani.
On the first point very few words will suffice. There was probably a
Fiesolan mart on the site now occupied by Florence from very remote
times; but the form of the "ancient circle" carries us back to a Roman
camp and a military colony as the origin of the regular city. Beyond
this meagre basis the whole story of "Troy, and of Fiesole and Rome,"
in connection with Florence must be pronounced a myth. The notices of
Florence before the opening of the twelfth century are few and meagre,
but they suffice to prove that the story of its destruction by Totila,
and rebuilding by Charlemagne, is without foundation; and of all the
reported conquests of Fiesole that of 1125 is the first that we can
regard as historical.
The history of Florence is almost a blank until about 1115 A.D., the
date of the death of the Countess Matilda.
With respect to the second point, it is impossible to give so brief or
conclusive an answer. Villani is as valuable to the historian as he is
delightful to the general reader. He is a keen observer, and has a
quick eye for the salient and essential features of what he observes.
When dealing with his own times, and with events immediately connected
with Florence, he is a trustworthy witness, but minute accuracy is
never his strong point; and in dealing with distant times and places
he is hopelessly unreliable.
The English reader will readily detect his confusions in Book VII., Sec.
39, where at one time Richard of Cornwall, and at another Henry III.,
is called king of England; and Henry of Cornwall and Edward I. are
regarded indifferently as sons of Richard or sons of Henry III., but
are always said to be brothers instead of cousins.
Here there is little danger of the reader being misled, but it is
otherwise in such a case as that of Robert Guiscard and the house of
Tancred in Book IV., Sec. 19. By way of putting the reader on his guard,
we will go into this exceptionally bad, but by no means solitary,
instance of Villani's inaccuracies.
Tancred, of the castle of Hauteville (near Coutances, in Normandy),
had twelve sons, ten of whom sought their fortunes in southern Italy
and Sicily. Four of these were successively Counts of Apulia, the last
of the four being Robert Guiscard. He was followed by his son Roger,
and his grandson William, who died childless. Another of the sons of
Tancred was Roger, who became Count of Sicily. He was succeeded by his
son Roger II., who possessed himself of the Apulian domains of his
relative William, on the decease of the latter. Roger now had himself
proclaimed King of Sicily by the anti-pope Anaclete, and united Sicily
and Naples under his sway. He was followed by his son William (the
Bad), and his grandson William (the Good), on whose death, without
issue, Henry VI., who married Roger's daughter Constance, claimed the
succession in the right of his wife. (_L'Art de Verifier les Dates._)
The most important of these relations may be set forth thus:
TANCRED OF HAUTEVILLE
|
+-------------------+
| |
Robert Guiscard Roger I.
Count of Apulia Count of Sicily
| |
Roger Roger II.
| King of Sicily
William |
+-----------------+
| |
William Constance = Henry VI.
the Bad
|
William
the Good
Let the reader construct the family tree from the data in Villani, and
compare it with the one given above. He will find that Villani, to
begin with, makes Robert Guiscard a younger son of the Duke of
Normandy, then makes his younger brother, Roger I., into his son
(occasionally confounding him with Roger II.); and, finally, ignores
William the Bad, and makes William the Good the brother of Constance.
His details as to the pretender Tancred are equally inaccurate. These
must suffice as specimens; but they are specimens not only of a
special class of mistake, but of a style of work against which the
reader must be constantly on his guard if he intends to make use of
any detailed dates or relations, or even if he wishes to make sure
that the Pope or other actor named in any connection is really the
right one.
So, too, even well within historical times, Villani is prone to the
epic simplification of events. His account of the negociations of
Farinata with Manfred, and of the battle of Montaperti for instance,
represents the Florentine legend or tradition rather than the history
of the events. These events are conceived with the vividness,
simplicity and picturesque preponderance of personality which make
them easy to see, but impossible to reconstruct in a rationally
convincing form.
To enter into further detail under this head would be to transgress
the limits we have set ourselves.
Sec. 5. _The Rationale of the Revolutions of Florence._[2]
[Footnote 2: The substance of this Sec. is entirely drawn from Prof.
Villari's recent work on Early Florentine History. "I Primi due Secoli
della Storia di Firenze, Ricerche di Pasquale Villari." 2 vols.,
Florence, 1893, 1894. Price 8 fr. English translation by Madame
Villari. "The Two First Centuries of Florentine History." Fisher
Unwin. Price 2_s._ 6_d._ This work should be carefully studied in its
entirety by all who desire to understand the constitutional history of
Florence. N.B.--Some of our readers may be glad of the information
that the modern scholar is Pasquale Vill[)a]ri (with short [)a]), and
the mediaeval chronicler Giovanni Vill[=a]ni (with a long [=a]).]
The settled conviction of both Villani and Dante that a difference of
race underlay the civil wars of Florence, rests upon a truth obscurely
though powerfully felt by them.
We have seen that the legend of Fiesole and Florence, upon which they
rest their case, is without historical foundation; but the conflict of
races was there none the less. And as it is here that modern
historians find the key to the history of Florence, our readers will
probably be glad to have set before them a brief account of the
general conceptions in the light of which modern scholars would have
us read the naive and ingenuous records of Villani.
The numerous Teutonic invasions and incursions which had swept over
northern and central Italy, from Odoacer to Charlemagne, had
established a powerful territorial nobility. They constituted a
dominating class, military in their habits, accustomed to the exercise
and the abuse of the simpler functions of government, accepting
certain feudal traditions, but owning no practical allegiance to any
power that was not in a position instantly to enforce it. Their
effective organization was based on the clan system, and the informal
family council was omnipotent within the limits of the clan. They were
without capacity or desire for any large and enduring social
organization. Their combinations were temporary, and for military
purposes; and internecine family feuds were a permanent factor in
their lives. Their laws were based on the "Barbarian" codes, but the
influence of Roman law was increasingly felt by them.
In the cities it is probable that the old municipal organization had
never wholly died out, though it had no formal recognition. The
citizens were sometimes allowed to live "under their own law," and
sometimes not; but the tradition of the Roman law was never lost.
Nominally the cities were under the jurisdiction of some territorial
magnate, or a nominee of the Emperor, but practically they enjoyed
various degrees of independence. Their effective organization would
depend upon their special circumstances, but in such a case as that of
Florence would be based on the trade guilds.
In Florence a number of the Teutonic nobles had settled in the city;
but it owed its importance to its trade. The city-dwelling nobles kept
up their clan life, and fortified their houses; but in other respects
they had become partially assimilated in feeling, and even in habits
and occupations, to the mercantile community in which they lived. They
filled the posts of military and civil administration, and were
conscious of a strong unity of interest with the people.
Under the vigorous and beneficent rule in Tuscany of the great
Countess Matilda (1076-1115) Florence was able quietly to consolidate
and extend her power without raising any thorny questions of formal
jurisdiction. But on the death of Matilda, when the Church and the
Empire equally claimed the succession and were equally unable
efficiently to assert their claims, it was inevitable that an attempt
should be made to establish the _de facto_ supremacy of Florence over
Fiesole and the whole outlying district upon a firmer and more formal
basis. It was equally inevitable that the attempt should be resisted.
Within Florence, as we have seen, there was a heterogeneous, but as
yet fairly united citizenship. The germs of organization consisted on
the side of the nobles in the clans and the Tower-clubs, and on the
side of the people in the Trade-guilds. The Tower-clubs were
associations each of which possessed a fortified tower in the city,
which was maintained at the common expense of the associates, and with
which their houses communicated. Of the Trade-guilds we shall speak
briefly hereafter.
In the surrounding country the territorial nobility watched the
growing power and prosperity of Florence with jealousy, stoutly
resisted her claims to jurisdiction over them and their demesnes, and
made use of their command of the great commercial highways to exact
regular or irregular tolls, even when they did not frankly plunder the
merchants.
Obviously two struggles must result from this situation. The city as a
whole was vitally concerned in clearing the commercial routes and
rendering the territorial nobility harmless; but within the city two
parties, who may almost be regarded as two nations, contended for the
mastery.
With respect to the collective struggle of Florence against her foes,
which entered on its active phase early in the twelfth century, on the
death of Matilda in 1115, it may be said in brief that it was carried
on with a vigour and success, subject only to brief and few reverses,
during the whole period with which we are concerned. But this very
success in external enterprises emphasized and embittered the internal
factions. These had been serious from the first. The Uberti and other
ruling families resisted the growing influence of the people; and the
vicissitudes of the struggle may be traced at the end of the twelfth
and beginning of the thirteenth centuries in the alternation of the
various forms of the supreme magistracy. But it was part of the policy
of the victorious Florentines to compel the nobles they had reduced to
submission to live at least for a part of the year in the city; and
thus while the merchant people of Florence was increasing in wealth
and power, the nobles in the city were in their turn constantly
recruited by rich and turbulent members of their own caste, who were
ready to support them in their attempt to retain the government in
their hands. Thus the more successful Florence was in her external
undertakings the greater was the tension within.
The forces arrayed against each other gradually assumed a provisional
organization in ever-increasing independence of each other. The old
senate or council and the popular assembly of all the citizens were
transformed or sank into the background, and the Podesta, or foreign
magistrate appointed for a year, with his lesser and greater council
of citizens, was the supreme authority from 1207 onwards. This marked
a momentary triumph of the nobles. But the people asserted themselves
once again, and elected a Captain of the People, also a foreigner,
with a lesser and greater council of citizens, who did not dispute the
formal and representative supremacy of the Podesta, but was in reality
coordinate with him. On this the Podesta naturally became the head of
the nobles as the Captain was head of the people; and there rose that
spectacle, so strange to us but so familiar to mediaeval Italy, of two
bodies of citizens, each with its own constitution and magistracy,
encamped within the same walls. The Podesta was the head of the
"Commonwealth," and the Captain the head of the "People." There was,
it is true, for the most part a show of some central and coordinating
power, nominally supreme over these independent and often hostile
magistrates, such as the body of Ancients. But this central government
had little effective power.
To understand the course of Florentine history, however, we must turn
back for a moment to the informal internal organization of the two
bodies thus opposed to each other. The struggle is between the
military and territorial aristocracy on the one hand, and the
mercantile democracy of the city on the other; and we have seen that
the clan system and the Tower-clubs were the germ cells of the one
order, and the Craft-guilds those of the other. Now the Craft-guilds
were obviously capable of supporting a higher form of political
development than could ever come out of the rival system. The officers
of the Florentine Crafts were compelled to exercise all the higher
functions of government. They preserved a strict discipline within
their own jurisdiction--(and the aggregation of the trades in certain
streets and districts made that jurisdiction roughly correspond to
local divisions)--they had to coordinate their industries one with
another, and regulate their complicated relations one with another,
and they sent their representatives to all the great trading cities of
the world, where they had to conduct such delicate and important
negociations that they became the most skilful diplomatists in Italy.
Indeed, the training of ambassadors may almost be considered as a
Florentine industry! Add to this the vast financial concerns which
they had to conduct, and it will readily be seen that as statesmen
the merchants of Florence must eventually prove more than a match for
their military rivals and opponents. The merchant people was the
progressive and constructive element in Florentine society.
Accordingly the constitutional history of Florence resolves itself
into a progressive, though chequered, advance of the people against
the nobles (or, as they were afterwards called, the magnates) along
two lines. In the first place, they had to make the _de facto_ trade
organization of the city into its _de jure_ constitution--a movement
which culminated in 1282 in the formal recognition of the Priors of
the Crafts as the supreme magistrates of Florence. And, in the second
place, they must attempt to bring the magnates effectively within the
control of the laws and constitution of the mercantile community,
which they systematically and recklessly defied as long as they were
in a position to do so. The magnates behaved like brigands, and the
people replied by practically making them outlaws. They gradually
excluded them from all share of the government, they endeavoured to
make the Podesta personally responsible for keeping them in order,
they organized a militia of trade bands that could fly to arms and
barricade the streets, or lay siege to the fortified houses of the
magnates at a moment's notice; and finally, in 1293, they passed the
celebrated "Ordinances of Justice" connected with the name of Giano
della Bella, by which when a magnate murdered a popolano his whole
clan was held directly responsible (the presumption being that the
murder had been ordered in a family council), and "public report"
vouched for by two witnesses was sufficient evidence for a
conviction.
It is this struggle for the supremacy of the mercantile democracy and
the Roman Law over the military aristocracy with its "barbarian"
traditions, that lies at the back of the Guelf and Ghibelline troubles
of the thirteenth century. The papal and imperial principles that are
usually associated with the names enter only in a very secondary way
into the conflict. In truth neither the popes nor the emperors had any
sympathy with the real objects of either party, though they were ready
enough to seek their advantage in alliances with them. And in their
turn the magnates and merchants of Florence were equally determined to
be practically independent of Pope and Emperor alike. Nevertheless the
magnates could look nowhere else than to the Emperor when they wanted
material support or moral sanction for their claims to power; and it
was only in the magnates that the Emperor in his turn could hope to
find instruments or allies in his attempt to assert his power over the
cities. In like manner the Pope, naturally jealous of a strong
territorial power, encouraged and fostered the cities in their
resistance to imperial pretensions, while he and the merchant bankers
of Florence were indispensable to each other in the way of business.
We have now some insight into the essential motives of Florentine
history in the thirteenth century. But another step is needed before
we can understand the form which the factions took. It would be a
fatal error to suppose that the Ghibellines were soldiers and the
Guelfs merchants, and that as each faction triumphed in turn Florence
expelled her merchants and became a military encampment, or expelled
her soldiers and became a commercial emporium. Such a course of events
would be absolutely impossible. The truth is, that the main part of
the faction fighting and banishing was done on both sides by the
magnates themselves. The industrial community went on its way,
sometimes under grievous exactions, sometimes under a friendly
Government, always subject to the insolence and violence of the
magnates, though in varying degree, but always there, and always
pursuing its business occupations. It came about thus. We have seen
that in the twelfth century the nobles within Florence were on the
whole fairly conscious of having common cause with the merchants, but
that the very success of her external undertakings brought into the
city a more turbulent and hostile order of nobility. On the other
side, rich and powerful merchants pushed their way up into recognition
as magnates, while retaining their pecuniary interest in commerce.
Thus in the thirteenth century the body of magnates itself became
divided, not only into clans, but into factions. It always seemed
worth while for some of them to strengthen their alliances with the
territorial magnates, the open foes of the city, in order to
strengthen their hold on the city itself; and it always seemed worth
while for others to identify themselves more or less sincerely with
the demands of the people in order to have their support in wrenching
from their fellow magnates a larger share of the common spoil. It was
here that the absence of any uniting principle or constructive purpose
amongst the magnates told with fatal effect. Indeed their house was so
divided against itself that the people would probably have had little
difficulty in getting rid of them altogether, had they not been
conscious of requiring a body of fighting men for service in their
constant wars. The knights were at a certain disadvantage in a street
fight in Florence, but the merchant statesmen knew well enough that
they could not do without them on a battle-field.
We can now understand the Guelf and Ghibelline struggles of the
thirteenth century. The Buondelmonte incident of 1215, which both
Dante and Villani regard as the cause of these conflicts, was of
course only their occasion. The conclusive victory of one party could
only mean the reappearance within its ranks of the old factions under
new names. For if the faction opposed to the people won a temporary
victory, they would be unable to hold their own permanently against
the superior discipline, wealth, and constructive genius of their
subjects; whereas if it was the champions of the people who had
expelled their rivals and seized the plunder, they would be in no
hurry to give up to the merchants the power they had won in their
name. They would regard themselves as entitled to a gratitude not
distinguishable from submission, and would have their own definition
of the degree of influence and power which was now their due. Thus
what had been the people's party among the magnates would aspire, when
victorious, to be the masters of the people, and gradually another
people's party would form itself within their ranks. The wonder is not
that no reconciliations were permanent, but that Cardinal Latino's
reconciliation of 1279 lasted, at least ostensibly, so long as till
1300.
Obviously, if no new forces came upon the field, the only issue from
this general situation must be in the conclusive triumph, not of the
people's faction amongst the magnates, but of the attempt to break
down the opposition of all the magnates to the citizen law, and the
successful absorption of them into the commercial community. In the
"Ordinances of Justice" and the further measures contemplated by
Giano della Bella the requirements of this solution were formulated.
Had they been successfully carried out, the magnates as an independent
order would have been extinguished. Accordingly from 1293 onwards the
fight raged round the Ordinances of Justice. No party, even among the
magnates, dared openly to seek their repeal; but while some supported
them in their integrity with more or less loyalty, others desired to
modify them, or attempted to disembowel them by manipulating the
elections and securing magistrates who would not carry them out. This
was the origin of the Black and White factions. The Blacks were for
circumventing the Ordinances, while the Whites were for carrying them
out and extending their principles.
It will be seen at once how false an impression is given when it is
said that the Whites were moderate Guelfs, inclining to Ghibellinism,
and the Blacks extreme Guelfs. The truth is that the terms of
Ghibelline and Guelf had by this time lost all real political meaning,
but in so far as Guelfism in Florence had ever represented a principle
it was the Whites and not the Blacks that were its heirs. But the
magnates of Florence at the beginning of the fourteenth century
administered large funds that had accrued from the confiscation of
Ghibelline estates; they had fought against the Ghibellines at the
Battle of Campaldino in 1289, and they made a boast of being Guelf of
the Guelfs. Whatever party of them was in the supremacy, therefore,
was prone to accuse those in opposition of Ghibellinism simply because
they were in opposition. This was what the victorious Blacks did.
Their alliance with Pope Boniface VIII., who wished to make use of
them for his ambitious purposes, lent some colour to their claim.
Moreover, the remnants of the old Ghibelline party in the city or its
territory naturally sought the alliance of the Whites as soon as they
were in pronounced hostility to the ruling Guelfs. Thus arose the
confusion that has perpetuated itself in the current conception of the
Whites as "moderates," or Ghibellinizing Guelfs, a conception which
stands in plain contradiction with the most significant facts of the
case.
During the closing period of Dante's life the politics of Florence
became more tangled than ever. Every vestige of principle seems to
disappear, and personal ambitions and hatreds to become more unbridled
than ever. The active interference of the Pope and the Royal house of
France, followed by the withdrawal of the Papal Court to Avignon, the
invasion of Italy by Henry VII., and the rise of such leaders as Can
Grande, Uguccione da Faggiuola, and Castruccio, introduced new forces.
We dimly perceive, too, that the mercantile democracy of Florence is
becoming a mercantile aristocracy with elements of disturbance beneath
it in the excluded or oppressed minor arts. In a word, just before the
movement that has been steadily proceeding from 1115 to 1300 reaches
its natural goal, the conditions of the problem change, the history
enters upon a new phase, the far-off preparation for the Medici
begins, and the problem ceases to have any direct and intimate
connection with the study of Dante.
Sec. 6. _Dante's Politics._
Enough has been said to show the reader how very imperfect an idea is
given of Dante's politics when it is said that he was at first a
Guelf but became a Ghibelline.
We have seen that the political party, for his connection with which
he was exiled, was heir to the best Guelf traditions. His own writings
show that the maintenance of peace was his idea of the supreme
function of Government. The extreme severity of his judgments upon
thieving and upon false coining is characteristic of the citizen of
the greatest commercial city of the world. In all this, if we must use
the misleading words, he is more Guelf than Ghibelline. It is true
that he constantly opposed the influence of Boniface VIII. in the
affairs of Florence, but Boniface was a disturbing and reactionary
force that opposed the legitimate development of the Guelf policy of
the Florentine democracy. It is true that he is a passionate advocate
of an ideal Empire, and that he looks to the Emperor to heal the
wounds of Italy, but the more carefully his writings are studied the
more clear does it become that what he seeks in the Emperor is not a
champion of Teutonic feudalism and supporter of the territorial
nobility, but a power that will make Roman Law run all through Italy,
and will hold the turbulent nobles in check. The Empire and the
Emperor mean to Dante justice and peace secured by the enforcement of
Roman Law. Whatever this is, it is not the Ghibellinism of Farinata or
the Ubaldini. It is true, however--and here if anywhere Dante is open
to the charge of temporary desertion of his principles--that after his
exile he, together with other Whites, entered into a league with the
Ubaldini, the most obstinate of the traditional foes of the commercial
community of Florence. This was a desperate act, which, however
reprehensible or deplorable, cannot be taken as indicating the
deliberate adoption of a policy in contradiction to the whole tenor
of his life and thought. We may well suppose that the sense of the
hollow and indeed dishonourable nature of such an alliance was one of
the considerations that induced him to sever himself from the exiles
and "make a party for himself."
Lastly, he was an enthusiastic admirer of Henry VII., and he even
goaded him on to the attack of Florence. But Henry himself, who came
to Italy with the sanction of the Pope, came with the earnest desire
to heal and soothe. The Ghibellines proper felt that they had more to
fear than to hope from him.
We cannot say, then, that Dante's politics changed. Nor can we define
his position by calling him a Guelf or a Ghibelline, or both. His
political ideals were his own. They were the outcome of his life and
thought, intensely personal, as was all else about him. They cannot be
labelled, but must be studied in his life and in his works.
If we are to use the current terms at all, we shall perhaps come
nearest to the truth by saying that Dante was a Guelf in his aims, but
that he approximated to the traditions if not to the practices of the
Ghibellines in the means by which he hoped to see them realized.
SELECTIONS FROM THE CHRONICLES OF VILLANI
NOTES AND WARNINGS
The marginal references are to the divisions and lines of Moore's
"Oxford Dante."
* * * * indicates a passage omitted in the translation; . . .
indicates a hiatus in the Italian text.
Villani makes the year begin on March 25th. Thus 1300 is still running
till March 25th, 1301. For instance, Bk. VII., Sec. 9, gives the last
day of February, 1265, as the date of the Battle of Benevento. By our
reckoning this is the February of 1266. So too the Reconciliation of
the Florentines by the Cardinal Latino, Bk. VII., Sec. 56, took place
by our reckoning in February, 1279, and the death of Charles of Anjou,
Bk. VII., Sec. 95, on January 7th, 1285, etc.
The Kingdom = The Kingdom of Apulia.
The Duchy = The Duchy of Spoleto.
The March = The March of Ancona.
The Principality = [?] The Principality of Tarento.
San Miniato = San Miniato al Tedesco, in the Arno
Valley, West of Empoli.
Nocera = Nocera of the Saracens near Naples,
not the Nocera of _Paradiso_ xi. 48.
The Duomo or Cathedral = What is now known as the Baptistery.
Master, M., Messer, all represent the Italian Messer.
"Popolo" is translated "people" except where it means "the Democracy"
as a form of government. It is there given untranslated. [[V] If this
rule is ever departed from, it is through inadvertency.]
The "popolari" or "popolani" are members of the "popolo" or people,
sometimes opposed to the "Nobili," or old Nobility of birth, and
sometimes to the "Grandi," or Magnates, the new nobility of wealth and
status.
To be "placed under bounds" appears to mean banishment or confinement,
under the form of a prohibition to cross certain stated "bounds."
The "Black" Cerchi are merely a branch of the Cerchi family: they were
"Whites" politically.
Villani was well acquainted with Dante's works, and evidently regarded
him as an authority. Therefore it must not be taken for granted,
without further thought, that in every case of agreement Villani's
testimony is an _independent_ confirmation of Dante.
CHRONICLE OF JOHN VILLANI
BOOK I.
_This book is called the New Chronicle, in which many past
things are treated of, and especially the root and origins
of the city of Florence; then all the changes through which
it has passed and shall pass in the course of time: begun to
be compiled in the year of the Incarnation of Jesus Christ,
1300. Here begins the preface and the First Book._
Sec. 1.--Forasmuch as among our Florentine ancestors, few and
ill-arranged memorials are to be found of the past doings of our city
of Florence, either by the fault of their negligence or by reason that
at the time that Totila, the scourge of God, destroyed it, their
writings were lost, I, John, citizen of Florence, considering the
nobility and greatness of our city at our present times, hold it meet
to recount and make memorial of the root and origins of so famous a
city, and of its adverse and happy changes and of past happenings; not
because I feel myself sufficient for such a work, but to give occasion
to our successors not to be negligent in preserving records of the
notable things which shall happen in the times after us, and to give
example to those who shall come after, of changes, and things come to
pass, and their reasons and causes; to the end that they may exercise
themselves in practising virtues, and shunning vices, and enduring
adversities with a strong soul, to the good and stability of our
republic. And, therefore, I will furnish a faithful narrative in this
book in plain vernacular, in order that the ignorant and unlettered
may draw thence profit and delight; and if in any part there should be
defect, I leave it to the correction of the wiser. And first we will
say whence were the origins of our said city, following on for as long
a time as God shall grant us grace; and not without much toil shall I
labour to extract and recover from the most ancient and diverse books,
and chronicles, and authors, the acts and doings of the Florentines,
compiling them herein; and first the origin of the ancient city of
Fiesole, the destruction whereof was the cause and beginning of our
city of Florence. And because our origin starts from very long ago, it
seems to us necessary to our treatise to recount briefly other ancient
stories; and it will be delightful and useful to our citizens now and
to come, and will encourage them in virtue and in great actions to
consider how they are descended from noble ancestors and from folk of
worth, such as were the ancient and worthy Trojans, and valiant and
noble Romans. And to the end our work may be more praiseworthy and
good, I beseech the aid of our Lord Jesus Christ, in whose name every
work has a good beginning, continuance and end.
Sec. 2.--_How through the confusion of the Tower of Babel the world
began to be inhabited._
[Sidenote: Inf. xxxi. 12-18, 46-81. Par. xxvi. 124-126. De Vulg. El.
i. 6: 49-61 and i. 7. Purg. xii. 34-36.]
[Sidenote: Inf. v. 52-60. De Mon. ii. 9: 22 sqq.]
We find in the Bible histories, and in those of the Assyrians, that
Nimrod the giant was the first king, or ruler, and assembler of the
gatherings of the peoples, that he by his power and success ruled over
all the families of the sons of Noah, which were seventy-two in
number, to wit, twenty-seven of the issue of Shem the first-born son
of Noah, and thirty of Ham the second son of Noah, and fifteen of
Japhet the third son of Noah. This Nimrod was the son of Cush, which
was the son of Ham, the second son of Noah, and of his pride and
strength he thought to rival God, saying that God was Lord of Heaven,
and he of Earth; and to the end that God might no longer be able to
hurt him by a flood of water, as He had done in the first age, he
ordained the building of the marvellous work of the Tower of Babel;
wherefore God, to confound the said pride, suddenly sent confusion
upon all mankind, which were at work upon the said tower; and where
all were speaking one language (to wit, Hebrew), it was changed into
seventy-two divers languages, so that they could not understand one
another's speech. And by reason of this, the work of the said tower
had of necessity to be abandoned, which was so large that it measured
eighty miles round, and it was already 4,000 paces high, and 1,000
paces thick, and each pace is three of our feet. And afterwards this
tower remained for the walls of the great city of Babylon, which is in
Chaldaea, and the name Babylon is as much as to say "confusion"; and
therein by the said Nimrod and his descendants, were first adored the
idols of the false gods. The said tower, or wall of Babylon, was begun
700 years after the Flood, and there were 2,354 years from the
beginning of the world to the confusion of the Tower of Babel. And we
find that they were 107 years working at it; and men lived long in
those times. And note, that during this long life, having many wives,
they had many sons and descendants, and multiplied into a great
people, albeit disordered and without law. Of the said city of Babylon
the first king which began to make wars was Ninus, son of Belus,
descended from Asshur, son of Shem, which Ninus built the great city
of Nineveh; and then after him reigned Semiramis, his wife, in
Babylon, which was the most cruel and dissolute woman in the world,
and she was in the time of Abraham.
Sec. 3.--_How the world was divided into three parts, and of the first
called Asia._ Sec. 4.--_Of the second part of the world called Africa,
and its boundaries._
Sec. 5.--_Of the third part of the world called Europe, and its
boundaries._
* * * * This Europe was first inhabited by the descendants of Japhet,
the third son of Noah, as we shall make mention hereafter in our
treatise; and also according to Escodio, master in history, Noah in
person, with Janus his son, which he begat after the Flood, came into
this part of Europe into the region of Italy, and there ended his
life; and Janus abode there, and from him were descended great lords
and peoples, and he did many things in Italy.
Sec. 6.--_How King Atlas, born in the fifth degree from Japhet, son of
Noah, first came into Europe._
Sec. 7.--_How King Atlas first built the city of Fiesole._
[Sidenote: De Vulg. El. i. 8: 11-13.]
[Sidenote: Inf. xv. 61-63. Par. xv. 126.]
* * * * This Atlas, with Electra his wife, and many followers, by
omens and the counsel of Apollinus his astrologer and master, arrived
in Italy in the country of Tuscany, which was entirely uninhabited by
human beings, and searching by the aid of astronomy through all the
confines of Europe for the most healthy and best situated place which
could be chosen by him, he took up his abode on the mount of Fiesole,
which seemed to him strong in position and well situated. And upon
that rock he began and built the city of Fiesole, by the counsel of
the said Apollinus, who found out by astronomical arts that Fiesole
was in the best and most healthy place that there was in the said
third part of the world called Europe. Since it is well-nigh midway
between the two seas which encircle Italy, to wit, the sea of Rome and
Pisa, which Scripture calls the Mediterranean, and the Adriatic Sea or
Gulf, which to-day is called the Gulf of Venice, and, by reason of the
said seas, and by the mountains which surround it, better and more
healthy winds prevail there than in other places, and also by reason
of the stars which rule over that place. And the said city was founded
during the ascendant of such a sign and planet, that it gives more
sprightliness and strength to all its inhabitants than any other part
of Europe; and the nearer one ascends to the summit of the mountain,
the more healthy and better it is. And in the said city there was a
bath, which was called the Royal Bath, and which cured many
sicknesses; and into the said city there came by a marvellous conduit
from the mountains above Fiesole, the finest and most wholesome spring
waters, of which the city had great abundance. And Atlas had the said
city walled with strongest walls, wondrous in their masonry and their
thickness, and with great and strong towers; and there was a fortress
upon the summit of the mountain, of the greatest beauty and strength,
where dwelt the said king, as is still shown and may be seen by the
foundations of the said walls, and by the strong and healthy site. The
said city of Fiesole multiplied and increased in inhabitants in a
short time, so that it ruled over the surrounding country to a great
distance. And note that it was the first city built in the said third
division of the world called Europe, and therefore it was named "_Fia
Sola_" [it shall be alone], to wit, _first_, with no other inhabited
city in that said division.
Sec. 8.--_How Atlas had three sons, Italus and Dardanus and Sicanus._
[Sidenote: De Mon. ii. 3: 67, 68.]
[Sidenote: De Vulg. El. i. 10: 39-85.]
Atlas, king of Fiesole, after that he had built the said city, begat
by Electra his wife three sons: the first was called Italus, and from
his name the kingdom of Italy was named, and he was lord and king
thereof; the second son was named Dardanus, which was the first rider
to ride a horse with saddle and bridle. Some have written that
Dardanus was son to Jove, king of Crete, and son to Saturn, as has
been afore mentioned; but this was not true, forasmuch as Jove abode
in Greece, and his descendants were kings and lords thereof, and were
always the enemies of the Trojans; but Dardanus came from Italy, and
was son to Atlas, as the history will make mention. And Virgil the
poet confirms it in his book of the _Aeneid_, when the gods said to
Aeneas that he should seek the country of Italy, whence had come his
forefathers which had built Troy; and this was true. The third son of
Atlas was named Sicanus, that is in our parlance Sezzaio [last], which
had a most beautiful daughter called Candanzia. This Sicanus went into
the island of Sicily, and was the first inhabitant thereof, and from
his name the island was at the first called Sicania, and by diversity
of vernacular of the inhabitants it is now called by them Sicilia,
and by us Italians Cicilia. This Sicanus built in Sicily the city of
Saragosa, and made it chief of the realm whereof he was king, and his
descendants after him for a very long time, as is told in the history
of the Sicilians, and by Virgil in the _Aeneid_.
Sec. 9.--_How Italus and Dardanus came to agree which should succeed
to the city of Fiesole and the kingdom of Italy._
When King Atlas had died in the city of Fiesole, Italus and Dardanus
his sons were left rulers after him; and each of them being a lord of
great courage, and both being worthy in themselves to reign over the
kingdom of Italy, they came to this agreement together, to go with
their sacrifices to sacrifice to their great god Mars, whom they
worshipped; and when they had offered sacrifice they asked whether of
them twain ought to abide lord in Fiesole, and whether ought to go and
conquer other countries and realms. From the which idol they received
answer, either by divine revelation or by device of the devil, that
Dardanus should go and conquer other lands and countries, and Italus
should remain in Fiesole and in the country of Italy. To which
commandment and answer they gave such effect that Italus abode as
ruler, and he begat great rulers which after him governed not only the
city of Fiesole and the country round about, but well-nigh all Italy,
and they built many cities there; and the said city of Fiesole rose
into great power and lordship, until the great city of Rome reached
her state and lordship. And thereafter, for all the great power of
Rome, yet was the city of Fiesole continually at war with and
rebelling against it, until at last it was destroyed by the Romans,
as this faithful history shall hereafter record. At present we will
cease speaking of the Fiesolans and will return to their history in
due time and place, and we will now go on to tell how Dardanus
departed from Fiesole, and was the first builder of the great city of
Troy, and the ancestor of the kings of the Trojans and also of the
Romans.
Sec. 10.--_How Dardanus came to Phrygia and built the city of Dardania,
which was afterwards the great Troy._
Dardanus, as he was commanded by the answer of their god, departed
from Fiesole with Apollinus, master and astrologer of his father, and
with Candanzia his niece, and with a great following of his people,
and came into the parts of Asia to the province which was called
Phrygia [Frigia], from the name of Friga, of the descendants of
Japhet, which was the first inhabitant thereof; which province of
Phrygia is beyond Greece, after the islands of Archipelago are passed,
on the mainland, which to-day is ruled by the Turks and is called
Turkey. In that country the said Dardanus by the counsel and arts of
the said Apollinus began to build, and made a city upon the shores of
the said Grecian sea, which he called after his own name Dardania, and
this was 3,200 years from the creation of the world. And it was called
Dardania so long as Dardanus lived, or his sons.
Sec. 11.--_How Dardanus had a son which was named Tritamus, which was
the father of Trojus, after whose name the city of Troy was so called._
Now this Dardanus had a son which was called Tritamus, and Tritamus
begat Trojus and Torajus; but Trojus was the wiser and the more
valorous, and because of his excellence he became lord and king of the
said city and of the country round about; and he had great war with
Tantalus, king of Greece, son of Saturn, king of Crete, of whom we
made mention. And then, after the death of the said Trojus, by reason
of the goodness and wisdom and worth which had reigned in him, it
pleased his son and the men of his city that the said city should
always be called Troy after his name; and the chief and principal gate
of the city, in memory of Dardanus, retained the name which the city
had at the first, to wit Dardania.
[Sidenote: Cf. Convivio iv. 14: 131-154. Purg. xii. 61-63. Inf. xxx.
13-15, 98, 113, 114.]
Sec. 12.--_Of the kings which were in Troy; and how Troy was destroyed
the first time in the time of the King Laomedon._ Sec. 13.--_How the good
King Priam rebuilt the city of Troy._ Sec. 14.--_How Troy was destroyed
by the Greeks._ Sec. 15.--_How the Greeks which departed from the siege
of Troy well-nigh all came to ill._ Sec. 16.--_How Helenus, son of King
Priam, with the sons of Hector, departed from Troy._
Sec. 17.--_How Antenor and the young Priam, having departed from Troy,
built the city of Venice, and that of Padua._
[Sidenote: Inf. xxxii. 88. Purg. v. 75.]
[Sidenote: Inf. xxxii. 88.]
[Sidenote: Purg. v. 75.]
Another band departed from the said destruction, to wit Antenor, who
was one of the greatest lords of Troy, and was brother of Priam, and
son of the King Laomedon, who was much accused of betraying Troy, and
Aeneas was privy to it, according to Dares; but Virgil makes him quite
innocent of this. This Antenor, with Priam the younger, son of King
Priam, a little child, escaped from the destruction of Troy with a
great following of people to the number of 12,000, and faring over
the sea with a great fleet arrived in the country where to-day is
Venice, the great city, and they settled themselves in those little
surrounding islands, to the end they might be free and beyond reach of
any other jurisdiction and government, and became the first
inhabitants of those rocks; whence increasing later, the great city of
Venice was founded, which at first was called Antenora, from the said
Antenor. And afterwards the said Antenor departed thence and came to
dwell on the mainland, where to-day is Padua, the great city, and he
was its first inhabitant and builder, and he gave it the name of
Padua, because it was among paduli [marshes], and by reason of the
river Po, which flowed hard by and was called Pado. The said Antenor
remained and died in Padua, and within our own times his body has been
discovered there, and his tomb engraved with letters which bear
witness that it is the body of Antenor, and this his tomb has been
renewed by the Paduans and may be seen to-day in Padua.
Sec. 18.--_How Priam III. was king in Germany, and his descendants kings
of France._ Sec. 19.--_How Pharamond was the first king of France, and
his descendants after him._ Sec. 20.--_How the second Pepin, father of
Charles the Great, was king of France._
Sec. 21.--_How Aeneas departed from Troy and came to Carthage in Africa._
[Sidenote: Inf. iv. 122. Inf. i. 73-75. De Mon. ii. 3; Convivio iv. 5:
48.]
[Sidenote: De Mon. ii. 3: 62.]
[Sidenote: De Mon. ii. 3: 77-84.]
[Sidenote: Epist. vii. (3) 62, 63.]
[Sidenote: Par. xix. 131, 132.]
[Sidenote: Par. viii. 9.]
[Sidenote: Inf. v. 61, 62. Par. ix. 97, 98. Cf. De Monarchia ii. 3:
102-108. Convivio iv. 26: 59-70. Canzon. xii. 35, 36.]
Aeneas again departed from the said destruction of Troy with Anchises,
his father, and with Ascanius, his son, born of Creusa, daughter of
the great King Priam, with a following of 3,300 men of the best people
of Troy, and they embarked upon twenty-two ships. This Aeneas was of
the royal race of the Trojans, in this wise: for Ansaracus, son of
Trojus and brother of Ilius, of whom mention was made in the
beginning, begat Danaus, and Danaus begat Anchises, and Anchises begat
Aeneas. This Aeneas was a lord of great worth, wise and of great
prowess, and very beautiful in person. When he departed from Troy with
his following, with great lamentation, having lost Creusa, his wife,
in the assault of the Greeks, he went first to the island of Ortygia,
and made sacrifice to Apollo, the god of the sun, or rather idol,
asking him for counsel and answer whither he should go; from the which
he had answer and commandment to go into the land and country of Italy
(whence at the first had come Dardanus and his forefathers to Troy),
and to enter into Italy by the harbour or mouth of the river of
Albola; and he said to him by the said oracle, that after many
travails by sea, and battles in the said land of Italy, he should gain
a wife and great lordship, and from his race should arise mighty kings
and emperors, which should do very great and notable things. When
Aeneas heard this he was much encouraged by the fair response and
promise, and straightway he put to sea with his following and ships,
and voyaging long time he met with many adventures, and came to many
countries, and first to the country of Macedonia, where already were
Helenus and the wife and son of Hector; and after their sorrowful
meeting, remembering the ruin of Troy, they departed. And sailing over
divers seas, now forwards, now backwards, now crossways, as being
ignorant of the country of Italy, not having with them any great
masters or pilots of the sea which could guide them, so that they
sailed almost whithersoever fortune or the sea winds might lead them,
at last they came to the island of Sicily which the poets called
Trinacria, and landed where to-day is the city of Trapali, in which
Anchises, his father, by reason of his great toils and his old age,
passed from this life, and in the said place was buried after their
manner with great solemnities. And after the great mourning made by
Aeneas over his dear father, they departed thence to go into Italy; and
by stress of storm the said ships were divided, and part held one way,
and part another. And one of the said ships, with all on board, was
lost in the sea, and the others came to the shores of Africa (neither
knowing ought of the other), where the noble city of Carthage was
a-building by the powerful and beautiful Queen Dido which had come
thither from Sidonia, which is now called Suri [Tyre]; and the said
Aeneas and Ascanius, his son, and all his following in the twenty-one
ships which came to that port, were received by the said queen with
great honour; above all, because the said queen was taken with great
love for Aeneas so soon as she beheld him, in such wise that Aeneas for
her sake abode there long time in such delight that he did not
remember the commandment of the gods that he should go into Italy; and
by a dream or vision, it was told him by the said gods that he should
no longer abide in Africa. For the which thing suddenly with his
following and ships he departed from Carthage; and therefore the said
Queen Dido by reason of her passionate love slew herself with the
sword of the said Aeneas. And those who desire to know this story more
fully may read it in the First and Second Books of the _Aeneid_,
written by the great poet Virgil.
Sec. 22.--_How Aeneas came into Italy._
[Sidenote: Conv. iv. 26: 96.]
[Sidenote: Inf. ii. 13-15.]
[Sidenote: Par. xv. 25-30.]
[Sidenote: Inf. ii. 13-27.]
When Aeneas had departed from Africa, he again landed in Sicily, where
he had buried his father Anchises, and in that place celebrated the
anniversary of his father with great games and sacrifices; and they
received great honour from Acestes, then king of Sicily, by reason of
the ancient kinship with the Trojans, who were descendants of Sicanus
of Fiesole. Then he departed from Sicily, and came into Italy, to the
Gulf of Baiae, which to-day is called Mare Morto, to the headland of
Miseno, very near where to-day is Naples; in which country there were
many and great woods and forests, and Aeneas, going through them, was
led by the appointed guide, the Erythraean Sibyl, to behold Hell and
the pains that are therein, and afterwards Limbo; and, according to
what is related by Virgil in the Sixth Book of the _Aeneid_, he there
found and recognised the shades, or soul-images of his father,
Anchises, and of Dido, and of many other departed souls. And by his
said father were shown to him, or signified in a vision, all his
descendants and their lordship, and they which were to build the great
city of Rome. And it is said by many, that the place where he was led
by the wise Sibyl was through the weird caverns of Monte Barbaro,
which is above Pozzuolo, and which still to-day are strange and
fearful to behold; and others believe and hold that, either by divine
power or by magic arts, this was shown to Aeneas in a vision of the
spirit, to signify to him the great things which were to issue and
come forth from his descendants. But however that may be, when he
issued forth from Hell, he departed, and entered into a ship, and,
following the shores until he came to the mouth of the river Tiber or
Albola, he entered it, and came to shore, and by signs and auguries
perceived that he had arrived in the country of Italy, which had been
promised him by the gods; and with great festival and rejoicing they
brought their labours by sea to an end, and began to build for
themselves habitations, and to fortify themselves with ditches and
palisades of the wood of their ships. And this place afterwards became
the city of Ostia; and these fortifications they built for fear of the
country people, who, fearing them as strange folk and unused to their
customs, held them as foes, and fought many battles against the
Trojans to drive them from the country, in all of which the Trojans
were victorious.
Sec. 23.--_How the King Latinus ruled over Italy, and how Aeneas had
his daughter to wife, and all his kingdom._
[Sidenote: Inf. xiv. 94-96. Par. xxii. 145, 146.]
[Sidenote: Cf. Par. xxi. 25-27.]
[Sidenote: Inf. iv. 125, 126. Purg. xvii. 34-39.]
[Sidenote: Par. vi. 35, 36.]
[Sidenote: Inf. i. 107, iv. 124.]
[Sidenote: Purg. xvii. 34-39. Inf. i. 108. Par. vi. 3. De Monarchia
ii. 3: 108-117.]
In this country (whereof the capital was Laurentia, the remains of
which may still be traced near to where Terracina now stands), the
King Latinus reigned, which was of the seed of King Saturn, who came
from Crete when he was driven thence by Jove his son, as we made
mention afore. And this Saturn came into the country of Rome, which
was then ruled by Janus of the seed of Noah; but the inhabitants were
then very ignorant, and lived like beasts on fruits and acorns, and
dwelt in caves of the earth. This Saturn, wise in learning and in
manners, by his wisdom and counsel led the people to live like men,
and caused them to cultivate lands, and plant vineyards, and build
houses, and enclose towns and cities; and the said Saturn was the
first to build the city of Sutri, called Saturna, and it was so called
after his name; and in that country, by his care, grain was first
sown, wherefore the dwellers therein held him for a god; and Janus
himself, which was lord thereof, made him his partner, and gave him a
share in the kingdom. This Saturn reigned thirty-four years in Italy,
and after him reigned Picus his son thirty-one years; and after Picus
reigned Faunus his son twenty-nine years, and was slain by his people.
The two sons of Faunus were Lavinus and Latinus. This Lavinus built
the city of Lavina. And Lavinus reigned but a short time; and when he
was dead the kingdom was left to Latinus, which changed the name of
the city of Lavina to Laurentia, because on the chief tower thereof
there grew a great laurel tree. The said Latinus reigned thirty-two
years, and was very wise; and he much bettered the Latin tongue. This
King Latinus had only one most beautiful daughter called Lavinia, who
by her mother had been promised in marriage to a king of Tuscany,
named Turnus, of the city of Ardea, now Cortona. Tuscany was the name
of the country and province, because there were the first sacrifices
offered to the gods, with the fumes of incense called _tuscio_. Aeneas
having arrived in the country, sought peace with the King Latinus, and
that he might dwell there; by the said Latinus he was received
graciously, and not only had leave of him to inhabit the country, but
also had the promise of his daughter Lavinia to wife, since the
command of the gods was that they should marry her to a stranger, and
not to a man of the country. For which cause, and to secure the
heritage of King Latinus, great battles arose, for a long time,
between Aeneas and Turnus and them of Laurentia, and the said Turnus
slew in battle the great and strong giant, Pallas, son of Evander,
king of the seven hills, where to-day is Rome, who had come in aid of
Aeneas; and on the same account died, by the hand of Aeneas, the virgin
Camilla, who was marvellous in arms. In the end, Aeneas, being victor
in the last battle, and Turnus being slain by his hand, took Lavinia
to wife, who loved Aeneas much, and Aeneas her; and he had the half of
the kingdom of King Latinus. And, after the death of King Latinus, who
lived but a short time longer, Aeneas was lord over all.
[Sidenote: Inf. ii. 13.]
[Sidenote: Par. vi. 40-42. Convivio iv. 5: 80-97.]
Sec. 24.--_How Julius Ascanius, son of Aeneas, was king after him, and
of the kings and lords who descended from him._ Sec. 25.--_How Silvius,
second son of Aeneas, was king after Ascanius, and how from him
descended the kings of the Latins, of Alba, and of Rome._ Sec.
26.--_How Romulus and Remus founded the city of Rome._ Sec. 27.--_How
Numa Pompilius was king of the Romans after the death of Romulus._ Sec.
28.--_How there were in Rome seven kings one after the other down to
Tarquin, and how in his time they lost the lordship._
Sec. 29.--_How Rome was ruled for a long time by the government of the
consuls and senators, until Julius Caesar became Emperor._
[Sidenote: Par. vi. 79-81. Convivio iv. 5: 16-29. De Monarchia ii. 9:
99-105; and ii. 12. Epist. vii. (3) 64-73.]
After that the kings had been driven out, and the government of Rome
was left to the consuls and senators, the said King Tarquin and his
son, with the aid of King Porsenna of Tuscany, who reigned in the city
of Chiusi [Clusium], made great war upon the Romans, but in the end
the victory remained with the Romans. And afterwards the Republic of
Rome was ruled and governed for 450 years by consuls and senators, and
at times by dictators, whose authority endured for five years; and
they were, so to speak, emperors, for that which they commanded must
of necessity be done; and other divers offices, such as tribunes of
the people, and praetors, and censors, and chiliarchs. And in this time
there were in Rome many changes, and wars, and battles, not only with
their neighbours, but with all the nations of the world; the which
Romans by force of arms, and virtue and the wisdom of good citizens,
ruled over well-nigh all the provinces and realms and dominions in the
world, and gained sovereignty over them, and made them tributary, with
the greatest battles, and with slaughter of many nations of the world,
and of the Romans themselves, in divers times, well-nigh innumerable
to relate. And also among the citizens themselves, by reason of envy
against the rulers, and strifes between magnates and them of the
people; and on the cessation of foreign wars, there arose much
fighting and slaughter ofttimes among the citizens; and, in addition
to this, from time to time intolerable pestilences arose among the
Romans. And this government endured until the great battles of Julius
Caesar against Pompey, and then against his sons, in which Caesar was
victorious; then the said Caesar did away with the office of consuls
and of dictators, and he first was called Emperor. And after him
Octavianus Augustus, who ruled in peace, after many battles, over the
whole world, at the time of the birth of Jesus Christ, 700 years after
the foundation of Rome; and thus it is seen that Rome was governed by
kings for 254 years, and by consuls 450 years, as we have aforesaid,
and it is told more at length by Titus Livius and many other authors.
But note that the great power of the Romans was not alone in
themselves, save in so far that they were at the head and leaders; but
first all the Tuscans and then all the Italians followed them in their
wars and in their battles, and were all called Romans. But we will
now leave the order of the history of the Romans and of the Emperors,
save in so far as it shall pertain to our matter, returning to our
subject of the building of Florence, which we promised to narrate. And
we have made this long exordium, forasmuch as it was necessary to show
how the origin of the Roman builders of Florence (as hereafter will be
narrated) was derived from the noble Trojans; and the origin and
beginning of the Trojans was from Dardanus, son of Atlas, of the city
of Fiesole, as we have briefly recounted; and afterwards from the
descendants of the noble Romans, and of the Fiesolans, by the force of
the Romans a people was founded called Florentines.
Sec. 30.--_How a conspiracy was formed in Rome by Catiline and his
followers._
[Sidenote: 680 A.U.C.]
[Sidenote: Convivio iv. 5: 172-176.]
At the time when Rome was still ruled by the government of consuls, in
the year 680 from the foundation of the said city, Mark Tully Cicero
and Caius Antony being consuls, and Rome in great and happy state and
lordship, Catiline, a very noble citizen, descended by birth from the
royal house of Tarquin, being a man of dissolute life but brave and
daring in arms and a fine orator, but not wise, being envious of the
good and rich and wise men who ruled the city, their lordship not
being pleasing to him, formed a conspiracy with many other nobles and
other followers disposed to evil-doing, and purposed to slay the
consuls and part of the senators, and to destroy their office, and to
overrun the city, robbing and setting fire to many parts thereof, and
to make himself ruler thereof; and this he would have done had it not
been warded off by the wit and foresight of the wise consul, Mark
Tully. So he defended the city from such ruin, and found out the said
conspiracy and treason; but because of the greatness and power of the
said Catiline, and because Tully was a new citizen in Rome, his father
having come from Capua or from some other town of the Campagna, he did
not dare to have Catiline seized or to bring him to justice, as his
misdeeds required; but by his great wit and fine speech he caused him
to depart from the city; but many of his fellow-conspirators and
companions, from among the greatest citizens, and even of the order of
senators, who abode still in Rome after Catiline's departure, he
caused to be seized, and to be strangled in prison, so that they died,
as the great scholar, Sallust, relates in due order.
Sec. 31.--_How Catiline caused the city of Fiesole to rebel against the
city of Rome._
Catiline having departed from Rome, with part of his followers came
into Tuscany, where Manlius, one of his principal fellow-conspirators,
who was captain, had gathered his people in the ancient city of
Fiesole, and Catiline being come thither, he caused the said city to
rebel against the lordship of the Romans, assembling all the rebels
and exiles from Rome and from many other provinces, with lewd folk
disposed for war and for ill-doing, and he began fierce war with the
Romans. The Romans, hearing this, decreed that Caius Antony, the
consul, and Publius Petreius, with an army of horse and many foot,
should march into Tuscany against the city of Fiesole and against
Catiline; and they sent by them letters and messengers to Quintus
Metellus, who was returning from France with a great host of the
Romans, that he should likewise come with his force from the other
side to the siege of Fiesole, and to pursue Catiline and his
followers.
Sec. 32.--_How Catiline and his followers were discomfited by the
Romans in the plain of Piceno._
Now when Catiline heard that the Romans were coming to besiege him in
the city of Fiesole, and that Antony and Petreius were already with
their host in the plain of Fiesole, upon the bank of the river Arno,
and how that Metellus was already in Lombardy with his host of three
legions which were coming from France, and the succour which he was
expecting from his allies which had remained in Rome had failed him,
he took counsel not to shut himself up in the city of Fiesole, but to
go into France; and therefore he departed from that city with his
people and with a lord of Fiesole who was called Fiesolanus, and he
had his horses' shoes reversed, to the end that when they departed the
hoofprints of the horses might show as if folk had entered into
Fiesole, and not sallied forth thence, to cause the Romans to tarry
near the city, that he might depart thence the more safely. And having
departed by night, to avoid Metellus, he did not hold the direct road
through the mountains which we call the Alps of Bologna, but took the
plain by the side of the mountains, and came where to-day is the city
of Pistoia, in the place called Campo Piceno, that was below where
to-day is the fortress of Piteccio, purposing to cross the Apennine
mountains by that way, and descend thence into Lombardy; but Antony
and Petreius, hearing of his departure, straightway followed after him
with their host along the plain, so that they overtook him in the said
place, and Metellus, on the other side, set guards at the passes of
the mountains, to the end he might not pass thereby. Catiline, seeing
himself to be thus straitened, and that he could not avoid the battle,
gave himself and his followers to the chances of combat with great
courage and boldness, in the which battle there was great slaughter of
Romans from the city and of rebel Romans and of Fiesolans; at the end
of which fierce battle Catiline was defeated and slain in that place
of Piceno with all his followers; and the field remained to the
Romans, but with such dolorous victory that the said two consuls, with
twenty horse, who alone escaped, did not care to return to Rome. The
which thing could not gain credence with the Romans till the senators
sent thither to learn the truth; and, this known, there was the
greatest sorrow thereat in Rome. And he who desires to see this
history more fully, let him read the book of Sallust called
_Catilinarius_. The injured and wounded of Catiline's people who had
escaped death in the battle, albeit they were but few, withdrew where
is to-day the city of Pistoia, and there in vile habitations became
the first inhabitants thereof, whilst their wounds were healing. And
afterwards, by reason of the good situation and fruitful soil, the
inhabitants thereof increased, which afterwards built the city of
Pistoia, and by reason of the great mortality and pestilence which was
near that place, both of their people and of the Romans, they gave it
the name of Pistoia; and therefore it is not to be marvelled at if the
Pistoians have been and are a fierce and cruel people in war among
themselves and against others, being descended from the race of
Catiline and from the remnants of such people as his, discomfited and
wounded in battle.
Sec. 33.--_How Metellus with his troops made war upon the Fiesolans._
After that Metellus, who was in Lombardy near the mountains of the
Apennine Alps in the country of Modena, heard of the defeat and death
of Catiline, straightway he came with his host to the place where the
battle had been, and having seen the slain, through amazement at the
strange and great mortality he was afeared, marvelling within himself
as at a thing impossible. But afterwards he and his followers equally
despoiled the camp of the Romans from the city and that of the enemy,
seizing that which they found there; and this done he came towards
Fiesole to besiege the city. The Fiesolans vigorously took to arms,
and sallied forth from the city to the plain, fighting with Metellus
and with his host, and by force thrust him back, and drove him to the
other side of the Arno with great hurt to his people, who with his
followers encamped upon the hills, or upon the banks of the river; the
Fiesolans with their host drew off from the other bank of the river
Arno towards Fiesole.
Sec. 34.--_How Metellus and Fiorinus discomfited the Fiesolans._
The night following, Metellus ordered and commanded that part of his
host should pass the river Arno, at a distance from the host of the
Fiesolans, and should place themselves in ambush between the city of
Fiesole and the host of the Fiesolans, and of that company he made
captain Fiorinus, a noble citizen of Rome of the race of the Fracchi
or Floracchi, who was his praetor, which is as much as to say marshal
of his host; and Fiorinus, as he was commanded by the consul, so he
did. In the morning, at the break of day, Metellus armed with all his
people passing over the river Arno, began the battle against the
Fiesolans, and the Fiesolans, vigorously defending the ford of the
river, sustained the battle in the river Arno. Fiorinus, who was with
his people in ambush, when he saw the battle begun, sallied forth
boldly in the rear of the Fiesolans, who were fighting in the river
against Metellus. The Fiesolans, surprised by the ambush, seeing
themselves suddenly assailed by Fiorinus in the rear and by Metellus
in front, put to confusion, threw down their arms and fled discomfited
towards the city of Fiesole, wherefore many of them were slain and
taken.
Sec. 35.--_How the Romans besieged Fiesole the first time, and how
Fiorinus was slain._
The Fiesolans being discomfited and driven back from the shores of
Arno, Fiorinus the praetor, with the host of the Romans, encamped
beyond the river Arno towards Fiesole, where were two little villages,
one of which was called Villa Arnina, and the other Camarte [Casa
Martis], that is campo or _Domus Martis_, where the Fiesolans on a
certain day in the week held a market in all commodities for their
towns and the region round about. The consul made a decree with
Fiorinus that no one should sell or buy bread or wine or other things
which might be of use to the troops save in the field where Fiorinus
was stationed. After this the consul Quintus Metellus sent incontinent
to Rome that they should send him men-at-arms to besiege the city of
Fiesole, for the which cause the senators made a decree that Julius
Caesar, and Cicero, and Macrinus, with several legions of soldiers,
should come to the siege and destruction of Fiesole; which, being
come, besieged the said city. Caesar encamped on the hill which rose
above the city; Macrinus on the next hill or mountain, and Cicero on
the other side; and thus they remained for six years besieging the
said city, having through long siege and through hunger almost
destroyed it. And likewise those in the host, by reason of the long
sojourn and their many privations being diminished and enfeebled,
departed from the siege, and returned to Rome, save Fiorinus, who
remained at the siege with his followers in the plain where he had at
first encamped, and surrounded himself with moats and palisades, after
the manner of ramparts, or fortifications, and kept the Fiesolans in
great straits; and thus he warred upon them long time, till his folk
felt secure, and held their foes for nought. Then the Fiesolans having
recovered breath somewhat, and mindful of the ill which Fiorinus had
done and was doing to them, suddenly, and as if in despair, advanced
by night with ladders and with engines to attack the camp or
fortification of Fiorinus, and he and his people with but few guards
and while they slept, not being on their guard against the Fiesolans,
were surprised; and Fiorinus and his wife and his children were slain,
and all his host in that place well-nigh destroyed, for few thereof
escaped; and the said fortress and ramparts were destroyed, and burnt
and done away with by the Fiesolans.
Sec. 36.--_How, because of the death of Fiorinus, the Romans returned to
the siege of Fiesole._
When the news was known at Rome, the consuls and senators and all the
commonwealth being grieved at the misadventure which had befallen the
good leader Fiorinus, straightway took counsel that this should be
avenged, and that a very great host should return once more to destroy
the city of Fiesole, for the which were chosen these leaders: Count
Rainaldus, Cicero, Teberinus Macrinus, Albinus, Gneus Pompey, Caesar,
and Camertino Sezio, Conte Tudedino, that is Count of Todi, which was
with Julius Caesar, and of his chivalry. This man pitched his camp near
to Camarti, nearly where to-day is Florence; Caesar pitched his camp
upon the hill which rose above the city, which is to-day called Mount
Cecero, but formerly was called Mount Caesar, after his name, or after
the name of Cicero; but rather it is held to be after Caesar, inasmuch
as he was the greatest leader in the host. Rainaldus pitched his camp
upon the hill over against the city on the other side of the Mugnone,
and after his name it is so called until this day; Macrinus encamped
on the hill still called after him; Camertinus in the region which is
still called Camerata after his name. And all the other aforesaid
lords, each one for himself pitched his camp around the city, some on
the hills and some in the plain; but no other than these aforesaid
have left their names to be a memorial of them. These lords, with
their followers in great numbers, both horse and foot, besieging the
city, arrayed and prepared themselves to make yet greater war upon the
city than at the first; but by reason of the strength of the city the
Romans wrought in vain, and many of them being dead by reason of the
long siege and excessive toil, those great lords and consuls and
senators well-nigh all returned to Rome; only Caesar with his followers
abode still at the siege. And during that sojourn he commanded his
soldiers to go to the village of Camarti, nigh to the river Arno, and
there to build a council house wherein he might hold his council, and
might leave it for a memorial of himself. This building in our
vernacular we have named Parlagio [Parliament house]. And it was round
and was right marvellously vaulted, and had an open space in the
midst; and then began seats in steps all around; and from step to
step, built upon, vaulting, they rose, widening up to the very top,
and the height thereof was more than sixty cubits, and it had two
doors; and therein assembled the people to hold council, and from
grade to grade the folk were seated, the most noble above, and then
descending according to the dignity of the people; and it was so
fashioned that all in the Parliament might see one another by face,
and that all might hear distinctly that which one was saying; and it
held commodiously an infinite multitude of people, and its name,
rightly speaking, was Parlatorio [speaking place]. This was afterwards
destroyed in the time of Totila, but in our days the foundations may
yet be seen, and part of the vaulting near to the church of S. Simone
in Florence, and reaching to the beginning of the square of Santa
Croce; and part of the palaces of the Peruzzi are built thereupon, and
the street which is called Anguillaia, which goes to Santa Croce, goes
almost through the midst of the said Parliament house.
Sec. 37.--_How the city of Fiesole surrendered itself to the Romans and
was destroyed and laid waste._
[Sidenote: Circ. 72 B.C.]
[Sidenote: Par. vi. 53, 54. xv. 124-126.]
Fiesole having been besieged as aforesaid the second time, and the
city being much wasted and afflicted both by reason of hunger and also
because their aqueducts had been cut off and destroyed, the city
surrendered to Caesar and to the Romans at the end of two years and
four months and six days (for so long had the siege lasted), on
condition that any which desired to leave the city might go in safety.
The city was taken by the Romans, and despoiled of all its wealth, and
was destroyed by Caesar, and laid waste to the foundations; and this
was about seventy-two years before the birth of Christ.
Sec. 38.--_How the city of Florence was first built._
After the city of Fiesole was destroyed, Caesar with his armies
descended to the plain on the banks of the river Arno, where Fiorinus
and his followers had been slain by the Fiesolans, and in this place
began to build a city, in order that Fiesole should never be rebuilt;
and he dismissed the Latin horseman whom he had with him, enriched
with the spoils of Fiesole; and these Latins were called Tudertines.
Caesar, then, having fixed the boundaries of the city, and included two
places called Camarti and Villa Arnina [of the Arno], purposed to call
it Caesaraea from his own name. But when the Roman senate heard this,
they would not suffer Caesar to call it after his name, but they made a
decree and order that the other chief noble Romans who had taken part
in the siege of Fiesole should go and build the new city together with
Caesar, and afterwards populate it; and that whichever of the builders
had first completed his share of the work should call it after his own
name, or howso else it pleased him.
[Sidenote: Inf. xxiii. 107, 108.]
[Sidenote: 70 B.C.]
[Sidenote: Inf. xv. 73-78. Par. xv. 124-126.]
Then Macrinus, Albinus, Gneus Pompey, and Marcius, furnished with
materials and workmen, came from Rome to the city which Caesar was
building, and agreed with Caesar to divide the work after this manner:
that Albinus undertook to pave all the city, which was a noble work
and gave beauty and charm to the city, and to this day fragments of
the work are found, in digging, especially in the sesto of Santo Piero
Scheraggio, and in Porta San Piero, and in Porta del Duomo, where it
shows that the ancient city was. Macrinus caused the water to be
brought in conduits and aqueducts, bringing it from a distance of
seven miles from the city, to the end the city might have abundance of
good water to drink and to cleanse the city; and this conduit was
carried from the river called Marina at the foot of Montemorello,
gathering to itself all the springs above Sesto and Quinto and
Colonnata. And in Florence the said springs came to a head at a great
palace which was called "caput aquae," but afterwards in our speech it
was called Capaccia, and the remains can be seen in the Terma until
this day. And note that the ancients, for health's sake, used to drink
spring waters brought in by conduits, forasmuch as they were purer and
more wholesome than water from wells; seeing that few, indeed very
few, drank wine, but the most part water from conduits, but not from
wells; and as yet there were very few vines. Gneus Pompey caused the
walls of the city to be built of burnt bricks, and upon the walls of
the city he built many round towers, and the space between one tower
and the other was twenty cubits, and it was so that the towers were of
great beauty and strength. Concerning the size and circuit of the city
we can find no chronicle which makes mention thereof; save that when
Totila, the scourge of God, destroyed it, history records that it was
very great. Marcius, the other Roman lord, caused the Capitol to be
built after the fashion of Rome, that is to say the palace, or master
fortress of the city, and this was of marvellous beauty; into which
the water of the river Arno came by a hollowed and vaulted passage,
and returned into the Arno underground; and the city, at every
festival, was cleansed by the outpouring of this duct. This Capitol
stood where to-day is the piazza which is called the Mercato Vecchio,
over against the church which is called S. Maria, in Campidoglio. This
seems to be the best supported opinion; but some say that it was where
the place is now called the Guardingo [citadel]; beside the Piazza di
Popolo (so called from the Priors' Palace), which was another
fortress. Guardingo was the name afterwards given to the remains of
the walls and arches after the destruction by Totila, where the bad
quarter was. And the said lords each strove to be in advance of the
work of the others. And at one same time the whole was completed, so
that to none of them was the favour granted of naming the city
according to his desire, but by many it was at first called "Little
Rome." Others called it Floria, because Fiorinus, who was the first
builder in that spot, had there died, he being the _fiore_ [flower] of
warlike deeds and of chivalry, and because in the country and fields
around where the city was built there always grew flowers and lilies.
Afterwards the greater part of the inhabitants consented to call it
Floria, as being built among flowers, that is, amongst many delights.
And of a surety it was, inasmuch as it was peopled by the best of
Rome, and the most capable, sent by the senate in due proportion from
each division of Rome, chosen by lot from the inhabitants; and they
admitted among their number those Fiesolans which desired there to
dwell and abide. But afterwards it was, through long use of the vulgar
tongue, called Fiorenza, that is "flowery sword." And we find that it
was built in the year 682, after the building of Rome and seventy
years before the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. And note that it is
not to be wondered at that the Florentines are always at war and
strife among themselves, being born and descended from two peoples so
contrary and hostile and different in habits as were the noble Romans
in their virtue and the rude Fiesolans fierce in war.
Sec. 39.--_How Caesar departed from Florence, and went to Rome, and was
made consul to go against the French._
[Sidenote: Par. vi. 65. Epist. v. (3) 47-49.]
[Sidenote: Par. vi. 73-81. Convivio iv. 5: 16-79. De Mon. ii. 9:
99-105; and ii. 12. Epist. vii. (3) 64-73.]
After that the city of Florence was built and peopled, Julius Caesar
being angered because he, having been the first builder thereof, and
having had the victory over the city of Fiesole, had nevertheless not
been permitted to call the city after his name, departed therefrom and
returned to Rome, and for his zeal and valour was elected consul and
sent against the French, where he abode ten years whilst he was
conquering France and England and Germany; and when he returned
victorious to Rome his triumph was refused him, because he had
transgressed the decree (made by Pompey the consul, and by the senate,
through envy, under colour of virtue), that no one was to continue in
any command for more than five years. The which Caesar returning with
his army of French and Germans from beyond the Alps, Italians, Pisans,
Pirates, Pistoians, and also Florentines, his fellow-citizens, brought
footmen and horsemen and slingers with him to begin a civil war,
because his triumph had been refused him, but moreover that he might
be lord of Rome as he had desired long time. So he fought against
Pompey and the senate of Rome. And after the great battle between
Caesar and Pompey, well-nigh all the combatants were slain in Emathia,
to wit Thessaly in Greece, as may fully be read in Lucan the poet, by
whoso desires to know the history. And after that Caesar had gained the
victory over Pompey, and over many kings and peoples who were helping
those Romans who were his enemies, he returned to Rome, and so became
the first Emperor of Rome, which is as much as to say commander over
all. And after him came Octavianus Augustus, his nephew and adopted
son, who was reigning when Christ was born, and after many victories
ruled over all the world in peace; and thenceforward Rome was under
imperial government, and held under its jurisdiction and that of the
Empire all the whole world.
Sec. 40.--_Of the ensign of the Romans and of the Emperors, and how from
them it came to the city of Florence and other cities._
[Sidenote: De Mon. ii. 4: 30-41.]
[Sidenote: Par. xix. 101, 102.]
[Sidenote: De Mon. ii. 11: 23. Purg. x. 80. Par. vi. 32, 100.]
[Sidenote: Par. xx. 8, 31, 32. Inf. iv. 95, 96. Purg. ix. 30.]
[Sidenote: Ep. vi. (3) 79-85.]
In the time of Numa Pompilius by a divine miracle there fell from
heaven into Rome a vermilion-coloured shield, for the which cause and
augury the Romans took that ensign for their arms, and afterwards
added S.P.Q.R. in letters of gold, signifying Senate of the People of
Rome; the same ensign they gave to all the cities which they built, to
wit, vermilion. Thus did they to Perugia, and to Florence, and to
Pisa; but the Florentines, because of the name of Fiorinus and of the
city, charged it with the white lily; and the Perugians sometimes with
the white griffin; and Viterbo kept the red field, and the Orvietans
charged it with the white eagle. It is true that the Roman lords,
consuls and dictators, after that the eagle appeared as an augury over
the Tarpeian rock, to wit, over the treasure chamber of the Capitol,
as Titus Livius makes mention, added the eagle to their arms on the
ensign; and we find that the consul Marius in the battle of the Cimbri
had on his ensigns the silver eagle, and a similar ensign was borne by
Catiline when he was defeated by Antonius in the parts about Pistoia,
as Sallust relates. And the great Pompey bore the azure field and
silver eagle, and Julius Caesar bore the vermilion field and golden
eagle, as Lucan makes mention in verse, saying,
Signa pares aquilas, et pila minantia pilis.
But afterwards Octavianus Augustus, his nephew and successor, changed
it, and bore the golden field and the eagle natural, to wit, in black
colour, signifying the supremacy of the Empire, for like as the eagle
surpasses every other bird, and sees more clearly than any other
creature, and flies as high as the heaven of the hemisphere of fire,
so the Empire ought to be above every other temporal sovereignty. And
after Octavianus all the Roman emperors have borne it in like manner;
but Constantine, and after him all the other Greek emperors, retained
the ensign of Julius Caesar, to wit, the vermilion field and golden
eagle, but with two heads. We will leave speaking of the ensigns of
the Roman commonwealth and of the Emperors, and we will return to our
subject concerning the doings of the city of Florence.
Sec. 41.--_How the city of Florence became the Treasure-House of the
Romans and the Empire._
Sec. 42.--_How the Temple of Mars, which is now called the Duomo of S.
Giovanni, was built in Florence._
After that Caesar and Pompey, and Macrinus and Albinus and Marcius,
Roman nobles and builders of the new city of Florence, had returned
to Rome, their labours being completed, the city began to increase and
multiply both in Romans and Fiesolans who had settled as its
inhabitants, and in a short time it became a fine city for those
times; for the emperors and senate of Rome advanced it to the best of
their power, much like another little Rome. Its citizens, being in
prosperous state, determined to build in the said city a marvellous
temple in honour of the god Mars, by reason of the victory which the
Romans had had over the city of Fiesole; and they sent to the senate
of Rome to send them the best and most skilful masters that were in
Rome, and this was done. And they caused to be brought white and black
marbles and columns from many distant places by sea, and then by the
Arno; they brought stone and columns from Fiesole, and founded and
built the said temple in the place anciently called Camarti, and where
the Fiesolans held their market. Very noble and beautiful they built
it with eight sides, and when it had been built with great diligence,
they dedicated it to the god Mars, who was the god of the Romans, and
they had his effigy carved in marble in the likeness of an armed
cavalier on horseback; they placed him on a marble pillar in the midst
of that temple, and held him in great reverence, and adored him as
their god so long as paganism continued in Florence. And we find that
the said temple was begun during the reign of Octavianus Augustus, and
that it was built under the ascendant of such a constellation that it
will continue almost to eternity; and this we find written in a
certain place engraved within the space of the said temple.
Sec. 43.--_Tells how the province of Tuscany lies._ Sec.
44.--_Concerning the might and lordship possessed by the province of
Tuscany before Rome came into power._ Sec. 45.--_These are the
bishoprics of the cities of Tuscany._ Sec. 46.--_Of the city of
Perugia._ Sec. 47.--_Of the city of Arezzo._ Sec. 48.--_Of the city
of Pisa._ Sec. 49.--_Of the city of Lucca._
Sec. 50.--_Of the city of Luni._
[Sidenote: Par. xvi. 73.]
[Sidenote: Purg. xiii. 152.]
[Sidenote: Vita Nuova Sec. 2. Convivio ii. 15.]
The city of Luni, which is now destroyed, was very ancient, and we
find from the stones of Troy, that from the city of Luni there went a
fleet and soldiers in aid of the Greeks against the Trojans;
afterwards it was destroyed by soldiers from beyond the mountains, by
reason of a lady, the wife of a lord, who, when on the way to Rome,
was adulterously seduced in this city of Luni, wherefore, as the said
lord returned, he destroyed the city by force, and to-day the country
is desert and unhealthy. And note that of old the coasts were much
inhabited, and albeit inland there were few cities, and few
inhabitants, yet in Maremma and Maretima, towards Rome on the coast of
the Campagna, there were many cities and many inhabitants, which
to-day are consumed and brought to nought by reason of the corruption
of the air: for there was the great city of Populonia, and Soana, and
Talamone, and Grosseto, and Civitaveglia, and Mascona, and Lansedonia,
which were with their troops at the siege of Troy; and in Campagna,
Baia, Pompeia, Cumina, and Laurenza, and Albania. And the cause why
to-day these cities of the coast are almost without inhabitants and
unhealthy, and also why Rome is less healthy, is said by the great
masters of astronomy to be because of the movement of the eighth
sphere of heaven, which in every hundred years moves one degree
towards the North Pole, and thus it will move 15 deg. in 1,500 years,
and afterwards will turn back in like manner, if it be the pleasure of
God that the world shall endure so long; and by the said change of the
heaven is changed the quality of the earth and of the air, and where
it was inhabited and healthy, it now is without inhabitants and
unhealthy, and also the converse. And furthermore, we see that in the
course of nature all things in the world change, and rise and
diminish, as Christ said with His mouth that nothing here abides.
Secs. 51-56.--_Of Viterbo, Orvieto, Cortona, Chiusi, Volterra, and
Siena._
Sec. 57.--_The story returns to the doings of the city of Florence, and
how S. Miniato there suffered martyrdom under Decius, the Emperor._
[Sidenote: 270 A.D.]
[Sidenote: 1013 A.D.]
[Sidenote: Purg. xii. 100-105.]
Now that we have briefly made some mention of our neighbouring cities
in Tuscany, we will return to our subject and tell of our city of
Florence. As we recounted before, the said city was ruled long time
under the government and lordship of the emperors of Rome, and
ofttimes the emperors came to sojourn in Florence when they were
journeying into Lombardy, and into Germany, and into France to conquer
provinces. And we find that Decius, the Emperor, in the first year of
his reign, which was in the year of Christ 270, was in Florence, the
treasure-house and chancelry of the Empire, sojourning there for his
pleasure; and the said Decius cruelly persecuted the Christians
wheresoever he could hear of them or find them, and he heard tell how
the blessed Saint Miniato was living as a hermit near to Florence,
with his disciples and companions, in a wood which was called
Arisbotto of Florence, behind the place where now stands his church,
above the city of Florence. This blessed Miniato was first-born son to
the king of Armenia, and having left his kingdom for the faith of
Christ, to do penance and to be far away from his kingdom, he went
over seas to gain pardon at Rome, and then betook himself to the said
wood, which was in those days wild and solitary, forasmuch as the city
of Florence did not extend and was not settled beyond Arno, but was
all on this side; save only there was one bridge across the Arno, not
however where the bridges now are. And it is said by many that it was
the ancient bridge of the Fiesolans which led from Girone to
Candegghi, and this was the ancient and direct road and way from Rome
to Fiesole, and to go into Lombardy and across the mountains. The said
Emperor Decius caused the said blessed Miniato to be taken, as his
story narrates. Great gifts and rewards were offered him as to a
king's son, to the end he should deny Christ; and he, constant and
firm in the faith, would have none of his gifts, but endured divers
martyrdoms: in the end the said Decius caused him to be beheaded where
now stands the church of Santa Candida alla Croce al Gorgo; and many
faithful followers of Christ received martyrdom at that place. And
when the head of the blessed Miniato had been cut off, by a miracle of
Christ, with his hands he set it again upon his trunk, and on his feet
passed over Arno, and went up to the hill where now stands his church,
where at that time was a little oratory in the name of the blessed
Peter the Apostle, where many bodies of holy martyrs were buried; and
when S. Miniato was come to that place, he gave up soul to Christ,
and his body was there secretly buried by the Christians; the which
place, by reason of the merits of the blessed S. Miniato, was devoutly
venerated by the Florentines after that they were become Christians,
and a little church was built there in his honour. But the great and
noble church of marble which is there now in our times, we find to
have been built later by the zeal of the venerable Father Alibrando,
bishop and citizen of Florence, in the year of Christ 1013, begun on
the 26th day of the month of April by the commandment and authority of
the catholic and holy Emperor Henry II. of Bavaria, and of his wife
the holy Empress Gunegonda, which was reigning in those times; and
they presented and endowed the said church with many rich possessions
in Florence and in the country, for the good of their souls, and
caused the said church to be repaired and rebuilt of marbles, as it is
now; and they caused the body of the blessed Miniato to be translated
to the altar which is beneath the vaulting of the said church, with
much reverence and solemnity by the said bishop and the clergy of
Florence, with all the people, both men and women, of the city of
Florence; but afterwards the said church was completed by the
commonwealth of Florence, and the stone steps were made which lead
down by the hill; and the consuls of the art of the Calimala were put
in charge of the said work of S. Miniato, and were to protect it.
Sec. 58.--_How S. Crescius and his companions suffered martyrdom in the
district of Florence._
Sec. 59.--_Of Constantine the Emperor, and his descendants, and the
changes which came thereof in Italy._
[Sidenote: Inf. xix. 115-117.]
[Sidenote: Inf. xxvii. 94, 95.]
[Sidenote: 320 A.D.]
[Sidenote: De Mon. iii. 10. Par. vi. 1-3; xx. 55-57.]
We find that our city of Florence remained under the government of the
Roman Empire for about 350 years after its first foundation, observing
pagan ways, and worshipping idols, albeit there were many Christians,
after the fashion whereof I have spoken, but they remained concealed
in divers hermitages and caverns without the city, and they which were
within did not declare themselves as Christians for fear of the
persecutions which the emperors of Rome and their vicars and ministers
brought upon the Christians, until the time of the great Constantine,
son of Constantine the Emperor, and of Helena his wife, daughter of
the king of Britain, which was the first Christian emperor, and
endowed the Church with all the possessions of Rome, and gave liberty
to the Christians in the time of the blessed Pope Sylvester, who
baptized him and made him a Christian, cleansing him from leprosy by
the power of Christ, and this was in the year of Christ about 320. The
said Constantine caused many churches to be built in Rome to the
honour of Christ, and having destroyed all the temples of paganism and
of the idols, and established Holy Church in her liberty and lordship,
and having brought the temporal affairs of the Church under due system
and order, he departed to Constantinople, which he caused to be thus
named, after his own name (for before this it was called Byzantium),
and he raised it to great state and lordship, and there he made his
seat, leaving here in command of Rome his patricians or censors, that
is, vicars, which defended Rome, and fought for her, and for the
Empire. After the said Constantine, which reigned more than thirty
years, first in command of Rome, and then in command of
Constantinople, there were left three sons, Constantine, and
Constantius, and Constans, which had war and contentions among
themselves, and one of them, to wit, Constantine, was a Christian, and
the next, Constantius, was a heretic, and persecuted the Christians by
reason of his heresy, which was begun in Constantinople by one named
Arius, and this heresy was called Arian, after his name, which spread
much error throughout all the world, and throughout the Church of God.
These sons of Constantine by their dissensions greatly laid waste the
Empire of Rome, and in a sense abandoned it, and henceforward it
always seemed as if it were declining, and its sovereignty becoming
less; and there began to be two and three emperors at one time, and
one would be reigning in Constantinople, and another in the Empire of
Rome, and one would be Christian, and another an Arian heretic,
persecuting the Christians and the Church, and this endured long time,
so that all Italy was infected thereby. Of the other emperors before
and after, we shall make no ordered record, save of those which
pertain to our subject; but he who desires to find them in order
should read the Martinian Chronicle, and therein he will find the
emperors and the popes which were in those times set forth in order.
Sec. 60.--_How the Christian faith first came to Florence._
[Sidenote: Par. xvi. 47, 145, 146.]
[Sidenote: Inf. xiii. 143-150.]
[Sidenote: Par. xvi. 25, 47.]
[Sidenote: Par. xvi. 42.]
[Sidenote: Inf. xix. 17-20. Par. xv. 134, 135.]
At the time that the said great Constantine became a Christian, and
gave freedom and sovereignty to the Church, and S. Sylvester, the
Pope, was openly established in the papacy in Rome, there spread
through Tuscany, and throughout Italy, and afterwards through all the
world, the true faith and belief of Jesus Christ. And in our city of
Florence, the true faith began to be adopted, and paganism to be
abolished, in the time of * * * * who was made bishop of Florence by
Pope Sylvester; and from the noble and beautiful temple of the
Florentines, of which mention has been made above, the Florentines
removed their idol, which they called the god Mars, and placed it upon
a high tower, by the river Arno, and would not break or destroy it,
because in their ancient records they found that the said idol of Mars
had been consecrated under the ascendant of such a planet, that if it
were broken or set aside in a place of contempt, the city would suffer
peril and injury, and undergo great changes. And although the
Florentines had lately become Christians, they still observed many
pagan customs, and long continued to observe them, and they still
stood in awe of their ancient idol of Mars, so little were they
perfected as yet in the holy faith; and this done, they consecrated
their said temple in honour of God and of the blessed S. John the
Baptist, and called it the Duomo of S. Giovanni; and they decreed that
the feast on the day of his nativity should be celebrated with solemn
sacrifices, and that a race should be run for a samite cloak, and this
custom has been always observed by the Florentines on that day. And
they had baptismal fonts erected in the middle of the temple, where
people and children were and still are baptized; and on Holy Saturday,
when in the said fonts the baptismal water and fire were blessed, they
ordered that the said holy fire should be carried through the city
after the custom of Jerusalem, so that some one should enter into
every house with a lighted torch, for them to kindle their fires
from. And from this solemnity came the privilege of the "great torch,"
which pertained to the house of the Pazzi, from some hundred and
seventy years before 1300; because one of their ancestors, named
Pazzo, strong and tall in person, bore a larger torch than any other,
and was the first to take the sacred fire, and then the others
received it from him. The said duomo, after that it had been
consecrated to Christ, was enlarged by the space where to-day is the
choir, and the altar of the blessed John; but at the time that the
said duomo was the temple of Mars, this addition had not been made
thereto, nor the turret and ball at the summit; and indeed it was open
above after the fashion of Santa Maria Ritonda of Rome, to the intent
their idol, the god Mars, which was in the midst of the temple, might
be open to the sky. But after the second rebuilding of Florence, in
the year of Christ 1150, the cupola was built upon columns, and the
ball, and the golden cross which is at the top, by the consuls of the
Art of Calimala, to which the commonwealth of Florence had committed
the charge of the building of the said work in honour of S. John. And
by many people which have journeyed through the world it is said to be
the most beautiful temple or duomo of any that may be found; and in
our times has been completed the work of the histories depicted within
in mosaic. And we find, from ancient records, that the figure of the
sun carved in mosaic, which says: "_En giro torte sol ciclos, et rotor
igne_," was done by astronomy, and when the sun enters into the sign
of Cancer, it shines at mid-day on that place through the opening
above, where is the turret.
Sec. 61.--_Of the coming of the Goths and Vandals into Italy, and how
they destroyed the country and besieged the city of Florence in the
time of S. Zenobius, bishop of Florence._
END OF SELECTIONS FROM BOOK I.